{"product_id":"virginia-in-1899-richmond-manchester-norfolk","title":"Virginia in 1899 - Richmond, Manchester, Norfolk","description":"\u003cp\u003eGeo. F. Cram mapped Richmond and its neighbor Manchester together for the 1899 edition of his Standard American Railway System Atlas of the World, the same New York- and Chicago-published volume that carried his Birmingham, Memphis, and Nashville plans, all built around the country's rail network rather than treated as secondary detail. The Richmond and Manchester sheet is a colored lithograph that uses distinct shading to separate the two municipalities visually even as it shows the rail lines and bridges physically stitching them together across the James River. The map covers both cities as they stood in 1899, a year before Manchester's formal annexation into Richmond, capturing the two as still-independent towns on the verge of becoming a single expanded city.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe James River runs through the center of the sheet, dividing Richmond on the north bank from Manchester on the south, with the railroad bridges crossing between them clearly marked as the physical link the two towns already shared in practice if not yet in government. Cemeteries and parks are identified on both sides of the river, evidence of how thoroughly Manchester had developed its own civic institutions even while functioning as Richmond's industrial suburb. Railroad lines converge from several directions onto the shared crossing points, reflecting how central the rail network had become to a metropolitan area that was, in every practical sense, already one economy. The map's careful separate treatment of each town's streets underscores just how close Richmond and Manchester stood to their 1910 merger.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA strong pick for a Richmond or Manchester family whose roots predate the 1910 annexation, or a Virginia collector pairing this with the store's earlier 1884 Gray map of Richmond and Henrico County; where that Gray edition shows Richmond alone fifteen years earlier, this 1899 Cram sheet is the only one in the collection to show Manchester as its own separate town just before the two merged. It comes unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece for an office or hallway.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195234635,"sku":"SKU1745-16x20","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195267403,"sku":"SKU1745-A2","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195300171,"sku":"SKU1745-18x24","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195332939,"sku":"SKU1745-50x70","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195365707,"sku":"SKU1745-A1","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195398475,"sku":"SKU1745-24x32","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195431243,"sku":"SKU1745-70x100","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195464011,"sku":"SKU1745-75x100","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58527195496779,"sku":"SKU1745-A0","price":76.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU1745.jpg?v=1789776885","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/en-us\/products\/virginia-in-1899-richmond-manchester-norfolk","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}