Delaware in 1838 - Dover, Wilmington, New Castle

This Delaware map belongs to Thomas G. Bradford's 1838 An Illustrated Atlas, published by Weeks, Jordan & Co. and Wiley and Putnam. Delaware, the smallest of the original thirteen colonies and the first state to ratify the Constitution, remained in 1838 a quiet, largely agrarian state save for the gunpowder mills the du Pont family had built along the Brandywine Creek near Wilmington since 1802 — an early industrial foothold that would eventually grow into one of the country's largest manufacturing concerns, though in this period it was still a comparatively small operation among the state's mills and farms. The map was drawn by Fielding Lucas Jr. and engraved by George W. Boynton at a scale of about 1:475,200.

The Delaware River runs along the state's northern edge, with the borders of Pennsylvania and Maryland bordering the map on either side, all rendered in the atlas's signature hand-applied color — a compact sheet for a state whose small size belied an outsized role in early American industry and politics alike.

A natural gift for a Delaware family, a First Stater who's since relocated, or a collector adding to a run of Bradford's 1838 maps. The print ships unframed and is offered in multiple sizes.