{"product_id":"alaska-map-1879-territorial-print-sitka-fort-yukon-aleutian-islands","title":"Alaska Map 1879 Territorial Print - Sitka, Fort Yukon, Aleutian Islands","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis map of Alaska was published in 1879 by Rand, McNally \u0026amp; Co. of Chicago as part of the fourth edition of their Business Atlas, the firm's first atlas title, which had begun only three years earlier covering just the Pacific slope states before expanding into a full national reference work. The sheet's most telling feature is cartographic honesty rather than embellishment: it uses plain outline color rather than the full color of Rand McNally's other state maps, and a wide stretch of territory south of the great Yukon River is labeled outright as \"unexplored,\" a rare admission of the limits of contemporary knowledge. It covers the whole of the Alaska territory along with an inset of the Aleutian Islands, and it was drawn just twelve years after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, while much of the interior remained genuinely uncharted by American surveyors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFort Yukon appears as one of the few interior settlements the mapmakers could confidently place, sitting along the Yukon River that dominates the sheet's geography. The Alaskan Range is picked out by hachures and spot heights, giving a sense of the mountainous spine running through the territory's center, while the Aleutian Islands extend westward in a separate inset to capture Alaska's full archipelago without distorting the main map's scale. Political boundaries mark the border with British possessions to the east, and both Greenwich and Washington are given as prime meridians, a dual convention typical of American commercial atlases. Altogether the sheet is less a finished portrait of Alaska than a snapshot of how little of it had yet been surveyed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis map appeals particularly to a collector fascinated by the history of American exploration, since its frank \"unexplored\" labeling is a genuinely rare thing to find printed on a commercial atlas page. Alaska buyers should note we also carry George Cram's later 1883 and 1893 Alaska maps; this 1879 Rand McNally sheet, made barely a decade after the territorial purchase, is the earliest and least complete of the group. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169120075,"sku":"1602-16x20","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169152843,"sku":"1602-A2","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169185611,"sku":"1602-18x24","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169218379,"sku":"1602-50x70","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169251147,"sku":"1602-A1","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169283915,"sku":"1602-24x32","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169316683,"sku":"1602-70x100","price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169349451,"sku":"1602-75x100","price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58520169382219,"sku":"1602-A0","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU1602.jpg?v=1789727283","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/en-us\/products\/alaska-map-1879-territorial-print-sitka-fort-yukon-aleutian-islands","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}