Florida Map 1856 State Print - Tallahassee, St. Augustine, Key West, Pensacola

G. W. Colton published this map of Florida in 1856 for his father J. H. Colton's Atlas of the World, a large single-volume edition rarer than the more common two-volume printing and accompanied by geographical and historical descriptions from Richard Swainson Fisher. This was Colton's first world atlas after years of publishing pocket maps, wall maps, and guides, and it launched a publishing run that would continue for more than thirty years under the Colton name. Florida had become the twenty-seventh state barely a decade earlier in 1845, and this map, colored in full by county with a dedicated inset plan of the Florida Keys, documents a state still sparsely settled outside its older coastal towns.

Tallahassee, chosen as territorial capital in 1824 for its position midway between St. Augustine and Pensacola, anchors the map's panhandle. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565 and the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the country, sits on the northeast coast, while Pensacola commands the western panhandle with its deep natural harbor. Key West, accessible primarily by sea, appears at the map's southern extreme, its detailed inset reflecting growing interest in the Keys as both a naval station and a maritime trading post. The map's decorative scrollwork border reflects the ornamental style still common among mid-century American atlas publishers.

This 1856 Colton sheet predates the 1892 Rand McNally and 1899 Cram maps of Florida also in this collection by several decades, capturing the state well before the railroad booms that would later open its interior and southern coasts to mass settlement. It is a fine choice for a collector of antebellum Florida history or anyone with roots in St. Augustine, Pensacola, or Tallahassee. This print is offered unframed in a range of sizes. Its detailed Keys inset and antebellum date make it a distinctive complement to the later Florida maps in this collection.