Great Plains/ Denver/ Railroad & Marketing History. KNIGHT, Leonard & Co.: Chicago: c. 1895 (attributed)/ UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. The Great Plains, on Union Pacific Railroad.  Hand-colored lithograph.  17 x 35 ½ inches. Expertly cleaned, de-acidified and mounted on Japanese paper, some invisible, closed splits in bottom portion, over all a very attractive, very good example.

Very rare pictorial map-view hybrid of the middle section of the Great Plains with Kansas City and Omaha in its eastern corners, and Cheyenne/ Sioux City and Denver in its western corners.  It includes part or all of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.  This is an area we’ve seldomly seen specifically depicted on a map or view.  The focus on this area was intended to highlight the connection via the Union Pacific Railroad between the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain region, which was the result of the acquisition in 1890 by the Union Pacific of the Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway.  Formerly the Colorado Central Railroad in 1890, it operated lines from Denver, Colorado through Cheyenne, Wyoming to Wendover, Wyoming and a route from Denver to Golden, Colorado. Also, the Great Plains as seen in this work is somewhat deceptively depicted, appearing to be thickly settled with an abundance of towns.

Various characteristics of this work suggest it was intended for display, most likely in the offices of the Union Pacific Railroad.  These features include the absence of both a publication imprint and folds, as well as its delicately shaded hand coloring. Internal evidence also suggests that this was the earliest iteration of an image that would be published later in various formats. Two known later versions were in brochure format and were more purely informational than this one; see examples in the Rumsey Collection at Stamford and one previously offered by Ruderman in the links below.  Another example in the Denver Public Library is a later version of ours with various differences; it shows rail lines in red and has more place names.  While our example and these others were derived from the same prototype, they were all clearly different lithographs; for example, there are significant differences in the positioning of place names in ours and the others, and our example has fewer place names than the others. 

Beginning in about 1890, the Union’s Pacific’s business was in decline.  In response, the company sought to expand its “brand” to passenger travel, including tourism, as well as to attract needed investors.  This effort included producing attractive visual images, such as this one, of the areas served by the line, especially those that expanded the line’s reach westward.  In addition, in as early as 1890, the rail line started using the tagline "The World's Pictorial Line" as an advertising slogan; it is included in the company logos found on this work.  The tagline refers both to the company’s use of imagery--photographic and lithographic--in its marketing and its emphasis on tourism and sightseeing.  The Union Pacific introduced a company logo—one of the earliest American businesses to do so—in late 1880s.  The logo would undergo several modifications over the years; the version on this work is in one of its earliest forms. For more on the history of the company’s logo see:

https://www.up.com/about-us/history/uplogo/logo02

Our attribution of this map to the Knight, Leonard & Company is based on the fact that the Rumsey copy was printed by that company.  This Chicago firm was founded by Charles Egbert Leonard (1829-1896). Trained in the printing trade, Leonard was active as a newspaper publisher in Michigan and Iowa before moving to Chicago in 1863, where he and his partner H.B. Horton operated as Horton & Leonard & Co.  Charles A. Knight purchased Horton’s interest in 1873 and the company’s name was changed to Knight Leonard & Co.; it operated until 1895.

Rumsey copy in brochure form:
https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~24266~880086:-Birdseye-view-Great-Plains-?mi=3&trs=4&qvq=q:great%20plains%20union%20pacific;lc:RUMSEY~8~1

Ruderman copy in brochure form: https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/58909/birdseye-view-of-the-great-plains-reached-via-the-union-paci-knight-leonard-co

Denver Public Library copy—later version of ours: https://digital.denverlibrary.org/nodes/view/337039

Price: $5,850.00