1861 Johnson's Georgia and Alabama
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By: Johnson and Browning
Date of Original: 1861 (published) New York
Original Size: 18 x 25 inches
This is a fine print reproduction of an important mid-19th-century map of Georgia and Alabama, originally published in 1861 by Johnson and Browning of New York.
The map is meticulously color coded by county and presents a dense network of railroads, wagon roads, rivers, canals, ports, and coastal approaches, along with clearly identified cities, towns, and villages. Its level of detail reflects the rapid economic development and expanding transportation infrastructure of the American South on the eve of the Civil War.
Particularly notable are the decorative side vignettes, which add both regional identity and contemporary context. One depicts a rice mill along the Savannah River, an explicit reference to the agricultural economy that underpinned coastal Georgia, especially the rice and cotton trade reliant on river transport and enslaved labor. The opposing vignette shows the Tuscaloosa Observatory, associated with the University of Alabama, symbolizing the era’s interest in science, education, and civic advancement within the Deep South.
The timing of this map’s publication is historically significant. Issued in the same year that Georgia and Alabama formally seceded from the United States, the map captures these states at the precise moment they entered the Confederacy. Between 1862 and 1864, both states became active theaters of the American Civil War, with rail lines, river corridors, and towns shown here playing critical roles in troop movements, supply routes, and military campaigns.
Inventory #NA127