{"product_id":"illinois-map-1845-state-print-springfield-chicago-vandalia","title":"Illinois Map 1845 State Print - Springfield, Chicago, Vandalia","description":"\u003cp\u003eSidney Morse and Samuel Breese, working in New York, published this map of Illinois in 1845 as part of Morse's North American Atlas, issued by Harper \u0026amp; Brothers across nine illustrated parts sold for twenty-five cents apiece. Morse and Breese pioneered the cerographic wax-engraving process used to print the map, a technique cheaper than copper-plate engraving that let Harper's sell four full-color maps per part at a fraction of the price of comparable engraved sheets, and this sheet carries a printed explanation panel decoding its symbols for towns, roads, railroads, rivers, and canals. Illinois is shown here less than three decades after statehood, its counties fully organized even as its rail network remained only a fraction of what it would become in the following generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpringfield anchors the map as the state capital, having taken over that role from Vandalia only a few years earlier in 1839. The Mississippi and Illinois rivers bound the state's western and central regions, still the dominant routes for moving grain and goods before the railroads matured. Towns and county seats are marked throughout the state's interior, dense in the settled southern and central counties and thinner toward the northern prairie. Together the young capital, the two rivers, and the still-developing county network sketch a state expanding quickly but not yet the rail powerhouse it would soon become.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn Illinois family with roots in the old river towns or the county seats settled in this early period will find this sheet speaks to that history, and it suits a collector marking the state before its railroad boom. The store also carries Illinois from Cram's later 1893, 1884, and 1883 editions, each showing a rail network built up decades beyond what this 1845 sheet records; this Morse map is the earliest Illinois sheet in the collection. It's printed unframed and available in a range of sizes to fit whatever wall it's headed for.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745131339,"sku":"1489-16x20","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745164107,"sku":"1489-A2","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745196875,"sku":"1489-18x24","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745229643,"sku":"1489-50x70","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745262411,"sku":"1489-A1","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745295179,"sku":"1489-24x32","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745327947,"sku":"1489-70x100","price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745360715,"sku":"1489-75x100","price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58514745393483,"sku":"1489-A0","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU1489.jpg?v=1789683755","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/en-us\/products\/illinois-map-1845-state-print-springfield-chicago-vandalia","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}