Kentucky in 1856 - Lexington, Louisville, Maysville, Clarksburg

Samuel Augustus Mitchell's map of Kentucky, published by Charles Desilver in Philadelphia, appeared in this printing as part of the 1859-60 edition of Mitchell's New Universal Atlas, the last edition of that long-running series before Desilver's imprint ended it after twenty-three years in print. Colored by county with relief shown by hachures, the map includes three detailed insets covering the vicinity of Lexington, the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, and the towns of Maysville and Clarksburg, alongside a table of steamship routes documenting the river commerce still central to Kentucky's economy in the years just before the Civil War. Desilver's Philadelphia operation kept the Mitchell name associated with reliability even as the atlas approached the end of its long publishing run. Kentucky's steamship trade remained vital to its economy even as the state's rail lines slowly expanded.

Lexington, at the heart of the state's famed Bluegrass horse country, receives its own detailed inset, as does Louisville, shown here at the Falls of the Ohio where river traffic was forced to portage around the only major navigational obstacle on the entire Ohio River. Maysville and Clarksburg, both smaller river towns along the Ohio in the state's northeast, round out the map's inset coverage. The included steamship route table underscores how much of Kentucky's commerce still depended on river transport even as railroads were beginning to expand across the state. The steamship route table included on the sheet reflects how much of Kentucky's trade still depended on the Ohio River even as the state's rail network expanded.

This 1856 Mitchell-Desilver sheet is one of three Kentucky maps in this collection, and where the 1836 Tanner and 1838 Bradford editions also offered here focus on roads and county boundaries in Kentucky's earlier decades, this later edition leans on its detailed city insets and steamship data to capture the state on the eve of the Civil War. This piece suits a Lexington or Louisville native, a horse country enthusiast, or a collector of Mitchell atlas maps. It ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes.