Connecticut Map 1838 State Print - Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport

This Connecticut map comes from An Illustrated Atlas, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical of the United States and the Adjacent Countries, compiled by Thomas G. Bradford and published in 1838 by Weeks, Jordan & Co. of Boston and Wiley and Putnam of New York. Engraved by George W. Boynton, it's considered Bradford's finest atlas, a first edition of thirty-nine maps, each originally paired with its own page of descriptive text.

The Connecticut sheet is hand-colored at a scale of about 1:460,000, with each county picked out in a distinct color to separate the state's administrative divisions. Hartford and New Haven are named among the map's cities, and its roads and rivers are traced in detail, alongside longitude and latitude markers used for navigation and geographic reference at the time. This is a considerably older and more finely engraved sheet than the county-style outline maps that came out of Chicago publishing houses later in the century.

TheMapVault also carries an 1883 Cram atlas map covering Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut together; this Bradford sheet is a different piece entirely, a standalone Connecticut map engraved forty-five years earlier and hand-colored by county. This print suits anyone with Connecticut roots, a family with ties to Hartford or New Haven, a transplant who left New England, or a collector of early American state atlases. It also makes a fitting housewarming, birthday, or anniversary gift. Every print ships unframed and comes in multiple sizes.