About this sheet
Headed "Detroit and Vicinity", this antique map of Detroit by Rand McNally, 1899, lays out the city's street grid along the Detroit River, with Windsor and the Canadian shore opposite in a contrasting printed tint.
The international boundary runs down the middle of the waterway. Belle Isle Park is marked in the river above the city, and the radiating avenues, Woodward, Michigan and Grand River, that give Detroit's plan its distinctive spoke pattern are laid in against the more conventional block plan of the surrounding wards. A pale tint distinguishes city from township, and the river is left white.
Street and steam railway lines are picked out across the built-up area, and the working waterfront, already busy with shipping and the beginnings of the manufacturing that would define the city in the following decades, is shown in some detail. The Canadian shore is left comparatively bare beyond Windsor's own streets, underlining how much more built up the American side already was by the 1890s. A scale bar and the atlas's cross-reference page numbers run along the lower margin.
Rand, McNally and Company, the Chicago firm that issued the 1899 indexed atlas, grew from the printing business William Rand started in the 1850s, later joined by Andrew McNally. By the 1890s it was among the leading map publishers in the United States, known for railroad and commercial maps revised with each new issue.
The sheet is a colour lithograph, the outline printed in black and every colour printed over it rather than applied by hand. Once framed, this antique map of Detroit would suit a home or office in the city today, and it will appeal to collectors of American city plans and local history.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light age toning, faint offsetting in the upper right margin and the original central fold as issued. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
