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The giant map of Boston

By adamg on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 12:15pm

John W. Mackey considers the meaning of the map Osgood Carleton created in 1795 for the town of Boston's selectmen that measures seven feet by six and a half feet.

Though the original map has faded and worn considerably over time, a close inspection of this capacious work reveals considerable subtleties that depict a vision of Boston well suited to the kind of life, animated by practical sciences and skills, that Carleton led.

The map is now housed at the BPL's Leventhal Map Center.

Via J.L. Bell.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
History


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Comments

By mg on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 2:16pm.

Thank you so much for sharing this. The discussion of Carleton and his maps of Massachusetts (both "excluding the district of Maine" and one solely of Maine) as well as the Boston map are very interesting.

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By anon on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 3:44pm.

The article says the map was recently rediscovered, but provides no further details. Where was it found?

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 7:37pm.

This is what I found - but it is for the full US map, not the giant Boston one.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/articles/finding-a-one-of-a-kind-map/

I suspect it was in a private collection or just stored in the deep in the recesses of the "new" statehouse, which has been undergoing renovations of late.

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By mg on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 10:35pm.

In that year []2021 the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library received Carleton’s unusually large 1795 Boston manuscript map as a gift from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (MCMA). The most likely provenance history of this map is that it was discarded by a City office in the middle of the twentieth century—perhaps during the construction of the new City Hall in the 1960s—and rescued by a contractor before arriving at the conference room of the MCMA. MCMA, in turn, gifted the map to the the Leventhal Center, bringing the map full circle back to the people of the City of Boston. (By coincidence, the MCMA was founded in 1795, the same year that the map was produced.)

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By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 01/06/2025 - 7:24pm.

I can't say how much I love this. Does anyone know if there is a raster or other form of layer available for QGIS or ArcGIS?

There is information in this map that modern map geeks can use. A prime example is the location of natural watercourses that have had a habit of reasserting themselves as unexplained flood zones in recent years.

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By Don't Panic on Tue, 01/07/2025 - 1:48am.

for those wondering what the Rope walks are all about that's where they made really long ropes for ships.

I love that Brookline was once known as Brooklyn. Very interesting article from John W. Mackey. Thanks for sharing @adamg.

By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 01/07/2025 - 8:57am.

Go to Charlestown Navy Yard and you will find a very long building along Chelsea Street that made rope from the 1830s until the 1950s: https://www.nps.gov/places/ropewalk-cny.htm