Kentucky in 1836 - Lexington, Louisville, Maysville, Clarksburg

Henry S. Tanner published this map of Kentucky around 1836 for his Universal Atlas, engraved by W. Brose and issued with the roads and distances between towns clearly marked along the state's stage and steamboat routes. Tanner's Universal Atlas was among the most respected and frequently revised American atlas projects of its era, and this Kentucky sheet includes three insets covering the Falls of the Ohio, the vicinity of Clarksburg, and the environs of Lexington, giving travelers a closer look at the state's most significant commercial points. The map's full color by county and hachured relief reflect Tanner's characteristic precision. Tanner's reputation for continual revision meant that even a single state sheet like this one was updated regularly to reflect new roads, counties, and settlements as they appeared.

Lexington, shown in its own detailed inset, anchors the map as the hub of the Bluegrass region's early horse and hemp economy. Louisville appears via its Falls of the Ohio inset, marking the one place on the entire river where boats had to portage around rapids, a natural bottleneck that made the city an essential transshipment point. Maysville and Clarksburg, both important river towns along the Ohio in Kentucky's northeast, round out the map's detailed coverage. Stage and steamboat routes crisscross the state, reflecting Kentucky's transportation network in the years just before railroads began to expand.

This Tanner sheet is the earliest of three Kentucky maps in this collection, predating the 1838 Bradford and 1856 Mitchell-Desilver editions also offered here and capturing the state in its stagecoach-and-steamboat era, before rail lines began reshaping its commerce. Together the three make a compelling set for tracing Kentucky's transportation history across a quarter century. This piece suits a Lexington or Louisville collector, or anyone drawn to early Kentucky cartography. It ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes.