About this sheet
With one of the longest railroad legends in the whole atlas, this antique map of Georgia by Rand McNally, 1899, is a double-page county map on pages 138 and 139 of the indexed atlas, from the Tennessee line to the Okefenokee Swamp.
The mountainous northern tier, Walker, Chattooga, Gordon and Habersham among its counties, gives way to the Piedmont around Atlanta and then the flat coastal plain, where the Okefenokee is shown with a stippled marsh symbol straddling the Florida line. The Chattahoochee, Ocmulgee, Oconee and Savannah rivers are traced in fine detail, and county seats are named even in the thinly settled wiregrass counties of the southeast, Ware, Clinch, Echols and Charlton among them. Savannah, with its harbour and the barrier islands offshore, anchors the coast.
The legend at upper right, numbered in red, runs to over ninety companies, among them the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern, the Central of Georgia, the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery, and the Georgia, Carolina and Northern, reflecting Georgia's place as the rail hub of the Deep South at the close of the century. Atlanta sits at the densest convergence of lines, and the state's cotton and timber economy is legible in the short lines radiating from Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Augusta towards the smaller mill and depot towns. Scale is given as 15 statute miles to the inch, and a note at upper left directs the reader to the adjoining North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Alabama sheets.
Behind the sheet stands one of the great names of American map publishing. William Rand opened a printing business in Chicago in the 1850s, Andrew McNally joined him, and by the 1890s Rand McNally was one of the leading map publishers in the United States, with a reputation built on railroad and commercial maps kept current from issue to issue.
In technique it is a lithograph printed in colour, with the black outline printed first and the pastel colours printed over it. Once framed, this antique map of Georgia would suit a home or office in the state today, and it will appeal to collectors of American state maps and railroad history.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light, even age toning, minor wear to the right edge 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.
