Illinois in 1883 - Chicago, Springfield, Peoria

This Illinois map comes from Cram's Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, copyrighted 1883 by George Franklin Cram and published in Chicago by A.C. Shewey and Co., a first edition remembered as Cram's first "mass production" world atlas. The sixty-five-map volume was built to bring detailed state geography to a broad American audience during a period of fast industrial growth.

Illinois is printed here in full color at a scale of about 1:2,220,000, bordered by a decorative edge, with relief indicated through hachures where shown. The sheet names Chicago prominently along Lake Michigan, then a city still rebuilding its reputation after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and traces the dense railroad network that had made Illinois a hub of Midwestern commerce. County boundaries are distinctly colored and labeled throughout, and both Greenwich and Washington prime meridians appear on the map.

This print suits anyone with Illinois roots, a family with ties to Chicago or one of its downstate counties, a transplant who left the Prairie State, or a collector building a run of Cram's 1883 atlas maps. It also makes a fitting housewarming, birthday, or anniversary gift. Every print ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes.