Fine U. S. Railroad Map with a Business Directory

HANNIFAN & CO./ RAND MCNALLY. [New York, 1886]

United States/ New York State/ Railroads/ Advertising.  HANNIFAN & CO., Publisher/ RAND MCNALLY, Printer [New York, 1886]  1885.-Railroad Map And Business Guide in Book Form.-1886.Embracing the Principal Manufacturers, Trades and Representative Business House of Utica, Rome Camden..and Schenectady.  25 ½ x 39 ½ inches.  Lithographed folding map with original hand color; light toning & a few stains & reinforcements, flattened, with original orange covers, separate; very good condition.

A highly informative, multi-purpose publication, combining a map providing an excellent portrait of the rail lines of the United States with, on the verso, a business directory for the Utica-Schenectady region of New York State, one of the industrial centers of the country at the time.   It affords a richly detailed look at type of industries and enterprises in operation at the time.  Advertisements for many of these concerns surround the map.  Studying this work one comes away with the impression that the United States was a nation of small businesses and shopkeepers at the time.  This publication was primarily intended as a promotional giveaway for business people whose companies are here represented.  A section to the right of the map with the heading, “Compliments of,” had been illegibly filled in by a person from Oneida County.

Evidently rare—no copies in map catalogue records, and OCLC cites a single copy, at Hamilton College.  The map was copyrighted by Rand McNally in 1885.

Price: $1,500.00