Nebraska in 1893 - Omaha, Lincoln, North Platte

Nebraska's map in The Columbian World's Fair Atlas was printed in 1893 as part of George Cram's effort to map every state and territory in the country for a volume tied to that year's Chicago World's Fair, a project Wood Brothers Cash Store of Unadilla, New York, used to reward its customers with something more lasting than a simple advertisement. The map carries the same Columbian World's Fair Atlas Co. engraving credit found throughout the ninety-map volume.

The sheet measures 32 by 24 centimeters and uses Washington alone as its prime meridian, unlike many of the atlas's other maps, which split the difference between Washington and Greenwich. County boundaries are marked in red, relief is shown through hachure shading, and railroads cross the county grid, underscoring how important rail lines were to settlement patterns on the Great Plains. Population and area figures in square miles are printed alongside the map, adding a statistical layer to the state's political geography and giving a sense of how quickly the Nebraska plains were filling in during the 1890s.

This is a solid pick for a Nebraska family, a relative who's since moved elsewhere, or a collector rounding out a set of Cram's 1893 state maps. It ships unframed and comes in multiple sizes, suited to a housewarming, an anniversary, or a birthday gift for anyone with ties to the state.