United States Map 1897 Population Change Print - New York, Chicago, San Francisco

This statistical map showing the increase and decrease of United States population between 1880 and 1890 was published by Rand, McNally & Co. of Chicago, appearing in the firm's 1897 Indexed Atlas of the World at what the company itself regarded as the high-water mark of its nineteenth-century atlas production. The sheet's distinguishing feature is its use of color coding rather than conventional political shading to render pure demographic data, with a legend translating shades into rates of population change across every state and territory over a full decade. It covers the entire continental United States, and it captures a country reshaped by the very forces the map measures: the 1880s saw a wave of industrialization, urban growth, and immigration that pulled population sharply toward cities and away from the older agricultural frontier.

Areas of steep population increase cluster around industrial centers and the expanding western frontier, while regions of decline appear scattered through parts of the rural interior already losing residents to the cities. The map's legend and color scheme let a viewer read a decade of migration at a glance, a form of statistical cartography Rand McNally had refined specifically for this kind of demographic reporting. Its broad 1:10,100,000 scale sacrifices local detail in favor of showing the whole country's population trend in a single view. Read as a unit, the map documents the last full decade before the 1890 census officially declared the American frontier closed.

This map makes a thoughtful gift for anyone interested in the history of American demographics, migration, or data visualization as its own discipline, since it captures information rather than geography as its primary subject. It also makes a striking talking point for a study or office wall, offering something visually distinct from a typical state or railroad map of the same era. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.