Oregon in 1878 - Salem, Portland, Eugene

This map of Oregon was produced by Edgar Williams & Co. of San Francisco in 1878 as the state map opening their Historical Atlas Map of Marion & Linn Counties Oregon, the only county atlas ever produced for an Oregon county during the nineteenth century. Edgar Williams & Co. published no other atlases, and the firm modeled its engraving and full-color finish closely on the county atlases Thompson and West were then producing for California, giving this sheet the same crisp hachured relief and careful color separation between counties. By 1878 Oregon had been a state for nearly two decades, admitted to the Union in 1859, and this map captures it in a period of rapid growth as railroad construction and continued settlement pushed further into the Willamette Valley and beyond.

The Willamette Valley, singled out on this sheet as the region of greatest agricultural importance, appears as the economic heart of the young state, its fertile bottomlands already drawing the bulk of Oregon's farming population. Salem, seated within that valley, served as the state capital, while Portland had emerged as Oregon's largest city and principal river port, its position on the Willamette giving it ready access to Pacific trade. Eugene, further south in the valley, was home to the University of Oregon, chartered only two years before this map was published. Together these places trace a state whose government, commerce and higher learning were all concentrated along the same fertile corridor.

This map makes a fitting gift for anyone with roots in the Willamette Valley or a connection to Oregon's early statehood years, as well as for collectors of western county atlases. Oregon buyers should also note we carry the state as mapped by Mitchell in 1877 alongside Washington, Idaho and Montana, by Asher & Adams in 1874 with its distinctive railroad focus, and by Rand McNally in 1889 with its county color and rail detail; this 1878 Edgar Williams edition is unique among them as the only sheet drawn specifically for an Oregon county atlas. It is available unframed in a full range of sizes, from a compact study print to a larger statement piece.