Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana in 1877 - Portland, Olympia, Boise City, Helena

This map of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and part of Montana was drawn for Mitchell's New General Atlas, published in Philadelphia in 1877 under the direction of Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr. and engraved by W.H. Gamble, whose firm produced some of the most widely circulated commercial atlases in the country during this period. The sheet is finished in full color by county, with relief indicated by hachures and railroad lines picked out clearly across the territory, and it is unusual in carrying two prime meridians, Greenwich and Washington, reflecting American cartographers' gradual move toward an independent reference standard. In 1877 this corner of the country presented a striking political contrast: Oregon had been a state for eighteen years, while Washington, Idaho and Montana remained organized territories still governed from appointed capitals and years away from statehood.

Portland stood as Oregon's largest city and principal river port, its access to the Columbia already fueling trade with San Francisco and beyond. Olympia served as the seat of Washington Territory's government on Puget Sound, more modest in size than the fast-growing timber and shipping town of Seattle to its north. Boise City filled the same administrative role for Idaho Territory, sited along the historic route of the Oregon Trail. Helena, only two years into its tenure as Montana Territory's capital after the seat moved there from Virginia City, represented the newest and least settled of the four jurisdictions this map brings together. Across these territories and one established state, the map traces a region still being organized county by county even as its railroads pushed steadily westward.

This map suits anyone with family history anywhere across the old Pacific Northwest and Montana frontier, or a collector building a set of Mitchell's territorial-era atlas maps. We also carry Oregon on its own as mapped by Edgar Williams & Co. in 1878, by Asher & Adams in 1874, and by Rand McNally in 1889; this 1877 Mitchell sheet is the only one in our collection to place Oregon alongside its still-unsettled neighboring territories on a single page. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.