Maine in 1845 - Portland, Bangor, Augusta, Belfast

Sidney E. Morse and Samuel Breese published this map of Maine in 1845 for Morse's North American Atlas, issued by Harper & Brothers in New York and produced using cerography, or wax engraving, the first American atlas to be made entirely with this innovative and more affordable printing technique. This 1845 edition was a reissue of the atlas originally published in parts between 1842 and 1845, updated with color and six additional maps not found in the earlier printing, including new coverage of Canada and the West Indies. Maine's map renders the state's boundary in yellow with counties clearly labeled, its coastline and interior lakes and rivers laid out with the crisp detail cerography made possible.

Portland anchors the map as Maine's largest city and busiest harbor along the southern coast. Bangor, upriver on the Penobscot, was already emerging as a major lumber port feeding the state's booming timber trade. Augusta, the state capital along the Kennebec River, and Belfast, a smaller but significant coastal shipbuilding town, round out the map's principal settlements. The cerographic process gave Morse and Breese's engravers unusual flexibility in updating individual details, a technical advantage reflected in the map's clean, legible rendering of the state's many rivers and lakes. Belfast's shipbuilding trade and Augusta's role as capital round out a state still deeply tied to its rivers, forests, and coastline.

This 1845 cerographic sheet stands apart technically from the more traditionally engraved 1859 Mitchell-Desilver map of Maine also in this collection, offering a collector the chance to compare two very different nineteenth-century printing methods applied to the same state. This piece is a strong choice for anyone interested in the history of American map printing, or with roots in Portland, Bangor, or coastal Maine. It ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes. Both prints reward a close look from anyone curious about how nineteenth-century publishers pushed their craft forward.