Boston from the Oldest Authorities, 1893

City Surveyor Thomas W. Davis and cartographer Pierre Humbert Jr. built this map at a scale of 1:6,000, large enough to print at 121 by 129 centimeters. It shows wards, streets, railroads, and the Harbor Commissioners' line, with radial distances measured from City Hall. The printed base is Davis's 1888 plan, but this copy is covered in manuscript annotations, corrections, and paste-ons. A working document that records the city changing in real time.

  • The manuscript corrections pasted over the printed map. This was a living document, not a finished product.
  • Radial distance lines fan out from City Hall, with half-mile and one-mile markers measuring the city's reach.
  • The Harbor Commissioners' line marks the legal boundary of the waterfront, running along the shore.

All prints are high-quality reproductions made from museum-grade scans at 300 DPI. Depending on the original scan dimensions, some prints may include white fill along the edges.

From $29.00