Silas Chapman (1813-1899). Chapman’s New Sectional Map of Wisconsin… (Milwaukee: 1870). Lithographed pocket map with full hand color. 33 x 30 ½ in. at decorative border. Sheet 33 ½ x 31 ¼ in. Accompanied by original brown cloth booklet with gilt titling. Pastedown advertises Chapman’s maps available for sale. Some toning where booklet was attached; some scattered foxing; a bit of browning along several folds. Shrink wrapped.
$2,500.00
This large and beautifully hand-colored map is an important document in the early statehood of Wisconsin. Chapman included a wealth of information, effectively detailing the progress of development in the state at the time. Towns and settlements are concentrated in the southern part of the state, where the mapping of river systems is highly detailed and the divisions of townships and sections are complete. Settlements along the Mississippi at this time are scattered, nevertheless adjacent river systems are detailed and township divisions are present.
There are huge counties in the north. Chippewa County extends to Ashland and to Marathon. Marathon extends north to the border w/Canada. Oconto extends to the borders in the east and north and Marathon in the west. The southern part of the state is full of railroads, extending as far north as Fort Borough and Green Bay and in the west to Augusta. Most of the townships in the southern counties are named.
Silas Chapman specialized in creating maps of the Midwest from the 1850s to the1870s, concurrent with a career in educational administration. The main market for his pocket maps would have been developers and settlers looking for opportunities to relocate west. The firm of Dyer & Pasmore was the successor to Chapman’s business, and they apparently retained him as their supervisor of production. A polymath of sorts, Chapman was born in Massachusetts in 1813 and moved to Milwaukee in 1842 where he opened a private school for boys. He was co-editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel and Milwaukee Herald before embarking on a publishing business that included book selling, stationary, and bookbinding. He is best known as a publisher of county, city, railroad, and geological maps. His most notable publication is Chapman’s Handbook of Wisconsin of 1855.
Chapman published numerous editions of this map, as well as other separate maps of Wisconsin under other titles. They are all scarce.
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