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Plat of St. Louis and Vicinity showing Railway System of the Terminal R. R. Assoc. of St. Louis, St. Louis Merchants Bridge Term’l Ry. Co. Wiggins Ferry Company.
St. Louis, Missouri: Buxton & Skinner, Printers, May 1908. Printed color map, 20” x 19” plus margins. Printed in black and red. Silk selvage renewed. Pencil note “Map No. 5Y” in the upper-right margin. CONDITION: Very good, minor wear. A scarce map of St. Louis showing the city’s railway system and the multitude of industrial operations along both the railways and the Mississippi River, and reflecting the redesign of Forest Park for the 1904 World’s Fair. Oriented with west at the top, the map covers an area extending from East St. Louis in the east to Elmwood Park in the west, and from Carondelet Park in the south to Ferguson in the north. Details populating the map include cemeteries, bodies of water, fair grounds, parks, botanical gardens, farms, an insane asylum, union station, a poor house, a race track, St. Joseph Sisters of Charity, General Grant’s Old Home, ferry lines, two bridges over the Mississippi River, and so on. Numerous operations and structures are located along the wharf lines on the Mississippi River, which are colored red, including yards, industrial tracks, mills, a water works, ammonia works, towers, the American Car & Foundry Co., flour mills, steel works, and foundries. Many plants, factories, etc. are also identified in red, including producers or processors of cement, oil, cotton, paper, asphalt, paper boxes, iron, lumber, wine, flour, syrup, etc. The city’s railway system is depicted and entails the East St. Louis & Carondelet Railway, St. Louis Belt Terminal Railway, Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis R.R., Illinois Transfer Railroad, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R.R., and others. A compass rose appears in the lower-left corner. Forest Park, the redesigned 120 acre site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, appears near the center of the map. The city of St. Louis appropriated $5 million for the fair, which was matched both by public subscription and another $5 million appropriated by Congress. Landscape architect George Kessler provided the new plan for the park and construction began in 1901. When the fair opened there were over 1,500 buildings in the park, all connected by some seventy-five miles of roads and paths. Much of the construction remained after the close of the fair. As indicated here, the Wabash Railroad also passes through a portion of the park. Based in St. Louis, Buxton & Skinner were stationers and lithographers active from 1878 to 1999. Founded by Oliver Buxton (1835–?) and Charles M. Skinner (1848–1929), the firm produced trade cards, booklets, and maps. Born in New York, Skinner first worked in a printing business in 1865 in Chicago, and in 1869 he moved to St. Louis where he worked for R. P. Studley and Co. The company ceased operation in 1878 and was taken over by employees Buxton and Skinner. After their offices suffered a fire in 1880, they relocated and formally incorporated. Buxton retired in 1886 and Skinner continued the company without changing the name. By 1898, when they added a new printing facility they had become one of the largest printing operations in America. In 1904 they published Ground Plan of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, MO, 1904. The company continued to thrive through several generations of the Skinner family and in 1999 it was purchased by the conglomerate Mail-Well. OCLC records no copies of this map, but does record a 1928 edition. REFERENCES: “History of Forest Park” at St. Louis, MO online.
Item #8008
Price: $750.00
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