click here to zoom
ANONYMOUS. [Madison, WI?: n.d. but c. 1865] Madison, The Capital of Wisconsin. Wood engraving[?] on newsprint, 28 ¼ x 41 5/8 inches at sheet edge, uncolored. Gently toned, a few tiny spots in image and minor soiling around edges. Expertly-mended cracks and tears, a few small losses to blank areas in-filled. Withal, quite good for a large map of this period. One of the earliest plans of Wisconsin’s capital city and by far the most detailed to date. It is very rare on the market, its last recorded appearance being in 1961. Although Madison was at the time of this map a very young city—it had been incorporated as a village in 1846, named state capital in 1848, and incorporated as a city in 1856—the map suggests an established, orderly city of good size, well connected by rail lines to the south and east. Though clearly a plat map, and thus likely produced to promote the sale of real estate, the map’s origin is a mystery, as it lists neither mapmaker, publisher, nor publication date. Printed on newsprint, it may have been issued as a newspaper supplement or to accompany an as yet unidentified real estate prospectus. The plan contains vignettes of the Wisconsin State Capitol, apparently in its third iteration, constructed between 1857 and 1869, and of the University of Wisconsin, which was founded in 1849. East of the city center is a new subdivision, “Farwell’s Addition To Madison,” which was first developed in 1856. L. J. Farwell, was a successful businessman and land developer, and from 1851 to 1853 served as the state’s second governor. The map depicts Farwell’s Madison Mills near the shore of Lake Mendota, with a millrace draining from there south to Lake Menona. “[Farwell] travelled extensively between 1846 and 1849, visiting Caribbean islands, Europe, and the near East. On his return, he settled in Dane County, Wisconsin, where he had invested in a great amount of property and owned roughly half the land of the village of Madison, the capitol of the new state. Farwell was active in building up the new capitol—he owned and operated half a dozen mills and shops, and was instrumental in laying out the streets and erecting the public buildings. He contributed to the establishment of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the state Agricultural Society, the public school system, and the University of Wisconsin.” (“Leonard J. Farwell”, at Wikipedia, accessed July 2025) Farwell’s prominence in the city and the map’s featuring of both Farwell’s Addition and his Madison Mills suggest that he may have had a hand in its creation. Per OCLC, institutions date the map between 1855 and 1863; however, internal evidence suggests a slightly later date: the map depicts the “Beloit and Madison Railroad Connecting with Chicago”, which was only completed in 1864, when the Beloit and Madison Railroad combined with the Chicago and North Western Railway to link the two cities. OCLC #230422951 (AAS, Harvard, Massachusetts Historical, Milwaukee County Federated Library System, Wisconsin Historical, giving a date of 1856); # 68933195 (Notre Dame, giving a date of 1863); #795769075 (Royal Danish Library, giving a date of “1870-?”);; and possibly #556479562 (British Library, giving a date of 1855). OCLC #64696585 lists a map that appears identical in all but size (Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, giving a date of 1855). Not in Phillips, Maps of America.
Price: $3,850.00