Stanfords Western Hemisphere Wall Map 1877 Large

Print on Demand map from the Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

The Western Hemisphere in the third quarter of the 19th century presented on a reproduction of a beautiful wall map (size 88 x 106cm / 35" x 42" approx) with cartography which will appeal instantly to all who love browsing through old atlases. The original map was drawn by Stanford’s Geographical Establishment and “published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education Appointed by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and of the National Society”.

PLEASE NOTE: the eastern hemisphere is available separately on the same size sheet as this map, while a smaller size landscape format reproduction (80 x 60cm / 31.5" x 36" approx) combines the two maps together. These maps are also available cloth-backed in a folded format.

Individual countries are presented in gentle pastel hues typical of hand-coloured maps, with their borders outlined in stronger colours. The publication date of 1877 gives us the Americas more or less as we know it now but Antarctica with only a handful of coastal places named and believed to be flat as a pancake (most of the subsequent political happened in the Eastern Hemisphere!). Hachures are used to show the mountain ranges and many other features of contemporary cartography are included: ocean currents and trade winds, surrounding frames showing the tropical zones and the position of the sun, etc. Latitude and longitude lines are drawn at 10° intervals. Additional panels on this map of the Western Hemisphere give examples of six different map projections (the map of the Eastern Hemisphere contains more similar interesting features).

To see the full list of other titles in this fascinating series please click on the series link.