New Jersey in 1893 - Trenton, Newark, Camden

George Cram built his reputation on maps that were accurate first and decorative second, and this 1893 sheet of New Jersey shows why his firm's work ended up bound into The Columbian World's Fair Atlas, a volume Wood Brothers Cash Store of Unadilla, New York, handed out to customers the year Chicago hosted the World's Fair. The atlas paired Cram's state-by-state cartography with views of the exposition itself, turning a piece of retail marketing into a genuinely useful reference work.

At a scale of about 1:900,000, this is one of the more tightly focused sheets in the atlas, using a single prime meridian at Washington rather than the dual-meridian setup found on many of its neighboring pages. Trenton, Newark, and Camden are all labeled, along with the county lines that divide the state in red, while the map's edges bleed into neighboring Pennsylvania and New York to place New Jersey in its regional context. Rivers appear in blue, adding a layer of geographic detail to what is otherwise a tightly packed political map.

It's a natural pick for someone with New Jersey ties, a family that's called the state home for generations, a relative who's since moved away, or a collector working through a full set of 1893 state maps. The print ships unframed and is available in multiple sizes, making it an easy choice for a housewarming gift or an anniversary present for anyone who still calls New Jersey home in spirit.