Nebraska in 1883 - Lincoln, Omaha, Grand Island

This Nebraska map came from George Franklin Cram's 1883 Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, published by A.C. Shewey & Co. of Chicago as the first mass-produced world atlas Cram ever released, part of a 65-map volume aimed squarely at ordinary American households.

Nebraska appears here at a scale of roughly 1:2,280,000, printed in outline color with red state borders and green county divisions, and relief suggested through hachures. The Platte River is marked as a defining geographic feature, the same valley the transcontinental railroad had followed west through Omaha since the golden spike was driven at Promontory Summit in 1869, and the map shows Nebraska's neighbors, Dakota Territory and Wyoming, along its borders. The Homestead Act, offering free land to settlers since 1862, had by 1883 filled much of the state's eastern half with farms, though its western reaches remained sparsely settled. Greenwich and Washington both serve as prime meridians.

A print like this suits anyone with Nebraska roots, a Cornhusker State transplant who wants a piece of home, or a collector working through Cram's earliest atlas maps one state at a time. It arrives unframed and comes in multiple sizes, a fitting housewarming, birthday, or anniversary gift.