Illinois 64 City Panoramic Maps on CD

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SKU: B149

Panoramic maps of Illinois. The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (1847 to 1929.) Known also as bird's-eye views, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective.

Product Details

The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (1847 to 1929.) Known also as bird's-eye views, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective.

Panoramic maps graphically depict the vibrant life of a city. Harbors are shown choked with ships, often to the extent of constituting hazards to navigation. Trains speed along railroad tracks, at times on the same roadbed with locomotives and cars headed in the opposite direction. People and horsedrawn carriages fill the streets, and smoke belches from the stacks of industrial plants. Urban and industrial development in post-Civil War America is vividly portrayed in the maps.

Victorian America's panoramic maps are quite remarkable in the perspective of the cities they capture. Most panoramic maps were published independently, not as plates in an atlas or in a descriptive geographical book. Preparation and sale of nineteenth-century panoramas were motivated by civic pride and the desire of the city fathers to encourage commercial growth. Many views were prepared for and endorsed by chambers of commerce and other civic organizations and were used as advertisements of a city's commercial and residential potential. These maps reveal much about the great contrasts and contradictions of the industrial age and the progressive era.

Preparation of panoramic maps involved a vast amount of painstakingly detailed labor. For each project a frame or projection was developed, showing in perspective the pattern of streets. The artist then walked in the street, sketching buildings, trees, and other features to present a complete and accurate landscape as though seen from an elevation of 2,000 to 3,000 feet.

Panoramic maps graphically depict the vibrant life of a city. Harbors are shown choked with ships, often to the extent of constituting hazards to navigation. Trains speed along railroad tracks, at times on the same roadbed with locomotives and cars headed in the opposite direction. People and horsedrawn carriages fill the streets, and smoke belches from the stacks of industrial plants. Urban and industrial development in post-Civil War America is vividly portrayed in the maps.

Here is a complete list of the city maps included in this collection. Where you see a city listed several times, there are several different maps - either maps created in different years and/or by different map making companies.

1. Abingdon 1874
2. Alton 1867
3. Aurora 1867
4. Aurora 1882
5. Batavia 1869
6. Belleville 1867
7. Bloomington 1867
8. Cairo 1867
9. Cairo 1888
10. Centralia 1867
11. Champaign 1869
12. Chenoa 1869
13. Chicago 1857
14. Chicago 1860
15. Chicago 1868
16. Chicago 1871
17. Chicago d1871
18. Chicago 1874
19. Chicago 1890
20. Chicago 1892
21. Chicago 1892
22. Chicago 1893
23. Chicago 1893
24. Chicago 1897
25. Chicago 1898
26. Chicago 1916
27. Chicago 1916
28. Chicago 1916
29. Clinton 1869
30. Danville 1869
31. Decatur 1869
32. El Paso 1869
33. Elgin 1880
34. Geneva 1869
35. Highland 1894
36. Homer 1869
37. Kankakee 1869
38. Lincoln 1869
39. Loda 1869
40. Manteno 1869
41. Mattoon 1884
42. Moline 1869
43. Moline 1873
44. Moline 1889
45. Monmouth 1869
46. Mount Sterling 1869
47. Mount Vernon 1881
48. Naperville 1869
49. New Salem (Menard County) 1837
50. Paxton 1869
51. Peoria 1867
52. Pontiac 1869
53. Princeton 1870
54. Rock Island 1869
55. Rock Island 1874
56. Rock Island 1889
57. Rockford 1880 1879
58. Rockford 1891
59. Sandwich 1869
60. Shelbyville 1869
61. Springfield 1867
62. Urbana 1869
63. World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago)
64. Young America 1869

Each map image on this CD is a super high resolution scan of an original panoramic map. Original maps were often as large as 36" x 36" or even larger. To offer all these maps at 100% detail, they are stored in either MRSid format or in JPEG 2000 format and require special viewers to be able to view all the details in these superb historical maps. Viewers and full viewing instructions for Windows computer platforms are included on this CD.


Some Additional Map Samples

 


Below you will find an example of the enlargement ability of the maps contained on this CD. You will see how you can view a small snapshot of the image all the way up to an incredible level of detail at the highest resolutions. The below set of images comes from Mystic CT and gives an excellent example of the level of detail in these maps at various levels of "magnification".

(Smallest size of this image)

(Small portion enlarged 2 times)

(Small portion enlarged 3 times)

(Small portion enlarged 4 times)

(Small portion enlarged 5 times - this enlargement represents the full
original size of the map when printed at full scale.)

As you can see from the above images, each map offers hours of exploration and excitement as you explore the cities as they were 100 or more years ago.

These maps may be viewed on your computer or printed out. The software will allow you to size the maps to any level of detail you wish and either print out the entire map or just a portion of it. (Even full scale maps can be printed with a large enough printer - like the ones used in your neighborhood poster and print shops.)

To use this software, you must install the free Map Viewing software which is included on the CD. This is a 30 second process and will allow you to view and manipulate/print all the maps in this CD collection in full detail. There are versions for Windows platforms and full installation instructions are included on the CD.