Miscellaneous nineteenth century atlases of Cleveland, Ohio

NINETEENTH CENTURY ATLASES OF CLEVELAND

In addition to the numerous editions of the atlases by Sanborn and by Hopkins, there are several important, early atlases that depict Cleveland during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

WALL MAPS:
Prececessors to the Commercial Atlases

As Cleveland and Cuyahoga County grew in population and became more complex areas to portray on maps, the earlier published maps, such as Ahaz Merchant's, became inadequate to provide the kinds of details necessary for governmental, commercial and other cartographic purposes. The answer was to either limit the information to such information as streets and major buildings, the route favored by the city directory maps, or to make the maps bigger. This latter solution, however, was only attempted briefly in the 1850s before the inadequacies of this approach became apparent. From that point on, the only wall maps were street maps (which even they were later chopped up into street atlases by Foreman-Basset and Commercial Survey) and the more highly-detailed maps were rendered into separate sections and bound as atlases. Here are those wall maps and commecial atlases in the Nineteenth Century for Cleveland.

Blackmore, Harris H., Map of Cuyahoga County, Ohio: Collected from the most accurate surveys from the first settlement to the present period, Stoddart & Everett, Cleveland, Ohio, 1852. Reprinted in 1975 in Cuyahoga County 1852 Landowners Map Index, pictured left. In 1852 this was not published as an atlas, but rather as a huge wall map of the style popular in mid-century. In 1975, an index to the landowners' names appearing on that map was published as a U.S. Bicentennial project, by the Greater Cleveland Genealogical Society. The wall map, cut into convenient views of each township, was reproduced in black and white and appended at the end. This index and map of 1852 has been a useful tool for many house-hunters and genealogists, as it furnishes landowners' names in most of Cuyahoga County outside of the city of Cleveland.

Hopkins, G.M., Map of Cuyahoga County, Ohio: from actual surveys ... , S. H. Mathews, publisher, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

THE TRUE ATLASES

In the late nineteenth century, commercial publishers began issuing atlases depicting the built-up districts of Cleveland. Two of these publishers continued issuing editions well into the twentieth century. The atlases are excellent sources of detailed information about the areas they covered, which did not initially encompass the entire city, much less the county. Over time, however, the coverage grew. Most of these atlases can be found at Cleveland Public Library and at the Western Reserve Historical Society Library, but the only copy of the 1886 Sanborn atlas located so far is in the map library at Kent State University (McGilvery Hall).

1874	Atlas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, from actual surveys by and under the direction of D.J. Lake, C.E. (digital edition)	Titus, Simmons & Titus, Philadelphia, PA
1874	Insurance maps of Cleveland, Ohio.	Sanborn Map & Publishing Company, New York, NY
1881	City atlas of Cleveland, Ohio, from official records, private plans and actual surveys.	G.M. Hopkins, Philadelphi, PA
1881	Insurance maps of Cleveland, Ohio.	Sanborn Map & Publishing Company, New York, NY
1886	Insurance maps of Cleveland, Ohio. (3 vol)	Sanborn Map & Publishing Company, New York, NY
1892	Atlas of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, Ohio….	George F. Cram & Company, Chicago, IL
1896	Insurance maps of Cleveland, Ohio. (3 vol)	Sanborn-Perris Map Company, New York, NY
1898	Atlas of the City of Cleveland, Ohio.... (Krause, F.L., et al)	A.H. Mueller & Company, Philadelphia, PA
1898	Atlas of the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, embracing Glenville, Collinwood….(Flynn, Thomas, et al)	A.H. Mueller & Company, Philadelphia, PA

If you are a member of an academic or public library in Ohio, you can access the new on-line edition of the state's Sanborn maps, via OPLIN or OhioLINK. The black & white images were scanned from the Chadwyck-Healey microfilms.

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First created December 6, 1996
Last updated December 19, 2005