Washington in 1883 - Seattle, Olympia, Spokane

George Franklin Cram published this map of Washington Territory in 1883 as part of his Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, issued in Chicago by A.C. Shewey & Co. It belongs to the first mass-produced world atlas Cram ever put out, a landmark in making detailed geographic information affordable and available to ordinary households.

This map maps Washington Territory, six years before statehood, at a scale of roughly 1:2,140,000, with relief indicated by hachures. Seattle and Olympia are both marked as key settlements, and the map names King, Pierce, and Yakima counties along with the Yakama Indian Reservation. Vancouver Island appears to the northwest, and the sheet notes the Pacific Ocean along the western coastline, the same year the Northern Pacific Railroad finally completed its transcontinental line to Tacoma, opening the territory's timber and coal to eastern markets on a scale it had never seen before.

A print like this suits anyone with Pacific Northwest roots, a Washington transplant who wants a piece of home, or a collector chasing Cram's earliest atlas maps. TheMapVault also carries an 1893 Cram map of Washington made after statehood; that later sheet comes from a different atlas and publisher entirely, so the two together trace the state's transition from territory to statehood. It ships unframed and is offered in multiple sizes.