Maryland and Delaware in 1893 - Baltimore, Wilmington, Annapolis

Printed at roughly 33 by 23 centimeters and finished with hand-applied outline color, this Maryland and Delaware sheet is a fairly typical example of the maps George Cram produced for The Columbian World's Fair Atlas in 1893, a volume Wood Brothers Cash Store of Unadilla, New York, gave to its customers to mark the Chicago World's Fair. The hand-coloring, added after the base map was printed, was standard practice for commercial atlases of the period and gives each surviving copy its own slightly individual character.

The map covers both states on a single sheet at about 1:1,250,000, with county boundaries picked out in red and relief indicated through hachure shading rather than contour lines. Depth is shown with isolines along the coast, and both Greenwich and Washington appear as prime meridians running along the borders. Baltimore and Wilmington are the two named anchors of the sheet, with the smaller towns of the Eastern Shore and the Delmarva Peninsula filled in around them.

This is a fitting gift for anyone with Maryland or Delaware roots, someone who's relocated and misses the Chesapeake, or a collector adding to a run of Cram's 1893 state maps. Sold unframed and offered in multiple sizes, it works equally well as a housewarming present or a quiet birthday gift for a lover of old maps.