New Mexico in 1883 - Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces

This New Mexico map came from George Franklin Cram's 1883 Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, published in Chicago by A.C. Shewey & Co. It was part of the first mass-production world atlas Cram ever issued, a run of 65 maps that put detailed, affordable cartography into ordinary American households for the first time.

The map depicts New Mexico Territory at a scale of roughly 1:2,280,000, bordered by one of Cram's decorative patterns, with county and territorial boundaries picked out in red and green outline color. Railways are marked prominently, a nod to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that had reached Santa Fe only three years before this map was printed, finally linking the territory's old trading routes to the national rail network. The sheet also shows portions of the neighboring states and territories that bordered New Mexico, ground still recovering from the Lincoln County War that had convulsed the territory just a few years earlier. Greenwich and Washington are both given as prime meridians.

A print like this suits anyone with New Mexico roots, a Land of Enchantment transplant who wants a piece of home, or a collector working through Cram's earliest atlas maps state by state. It arrives unframed and comes in multiple sizes, a natural choice for a housewarming, birthday, or anniversary gift.