{"product_id":"california-map-1855-state-print-san-francisco-los-angeles-san-diego","title":"California Map 1855 State Print - San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego","description":"\u003cp\u003eJoseph Hutchins Colton, one of the most prolific American mapmakers of the nineteenth century, issued this map of California with its San Francisco inset in 1855 as part of his newly launched Colton's Atlas of the United States, the firm's first true atlas after decades of publishing wall maps, guidebooks and railroad charts. Colton had built his New York publishing house from the 1830s onward largely by acquiring engraving rights from other cartographers before developing an in-house map trade known for high-quality steel engraving, decorative borders and careful hand coloring, qualities on full display here in the map's ornamental border. This was the first year Colton issued the California sheet, making it an early and foundational entry in what would become one of the firm's longest-running state map series. It arrives just five years after California's admission to the Union, when the state's southern counties were still only loosely defined.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnly six counties are shown across Southern California on this early state of the map: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Buena Vista, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, a configuration that would be redrawn many times over the following decades as the region's population grew. The San Francisco inset gives the map a second, more detailed focus on the state's dominant commercial port, reflecting the city's central role in Gold Rush-era California even as Los Angeles remained a comparatively small pueblo town. A decorative border surrounds the whole sheet in the style that became a Colton hallmark, distinguishing the firm's atlas maps from the plainer wall-map format the company had relied on through the 1840s. Together the county lines and the San Francisco detail capture California just as it was shifting from a mining frontier toward a settled, if still thinly populated, state.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis early Colton California makes a fitting gift for a Bay Area family tracing roots back to the Gold Rush years, or for a San Diego or Los Angeles transplant curious to see how small their home counties once were on paper. We also carry Colton's California with San Francisco inset in later Colton's General Atlas printings and other California county maps from the same decade; this 1855 sheet is the first year Colton issued the design, giving it a documented priority within the firm's California map series. It's available unframed in every size we offer, from a compact print through to a large-format piece.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TheMapVault","offers":[{"title":"16x20 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582805971275,"sku":"SKU2010-16x20","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2 (42x60cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806004043,"sku":"SKU2010-A2","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"18x24 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806036811,"sku":"SKU2010-18x24","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806069579,"sku":"SKU2010-50x70","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1 (60x84cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806102347,"sku":"SKU2010-A1","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"24x32 inch - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806135115,"sku":"SKU2010-24x32","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806167883,"sku":"SKU2010-70x100","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"75x100 cm - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806200651,"sku":"SKU2010-75x100","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0 (84x119cm) - UNFRAMED","offer_id":58582806233419,"sku":"SKU2010-A0","price":55.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/2456\/5323\/files\/SKU2010.jpg?v=1790215606","url":"https:\/\/www.themapvault.com\/products\/california-map-1855-state-print-san-francisco-los-angeles-san-diego","provider":"TheMapVault","version":"1.0","type":"link"}