Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

Map of Burlington, Vermont 1853.

New York and Jersey City: Presdee & Edwards, 1853. Lith of Sarony & Major. Hand-colored lithograph, 41.25” x 30.375” plus margins, mounted on linen and attached to wooden rods. CONDITION: Very good, some modest rubbing, creasing, and modest cracking, a few light damp-stains at edges, loss of silk selvage at right and left edges.

A rare wall map of Burlington, Vermont replete with property information and enhanced with illustrations of the homes of prominent citizens and other notable buildings.

This handsome plan of Burlington shows the city as it appeared in 1853, documenting land titles, property lines, and building footprints (shown in hatching). Churches and government buildings appear in black, parks in green, and the shore of Lake Champlain in blue. The “Vermont Central Rail Road” and the “Rutland & Burlington Rail Road” are shown connecting to downtown Burlington and the city wharf. On the right side, the University of Vermont (founded in 1791) appears in its mid-nineteenth-century state, consisting of one main building and a few satellite buildings along the College Green. In later decades it would come to occupy the ample land to the east labeled “College Property.” Important businesses—banks, hotels and commercial blocks—are identified. A fine ornamental border surrounds the map. Scale is given in rods, and relief is shown in hachures.  

A list of subscribers (sponsors) and their occupations appears on the right side of the map, and a total of ten vignettes of notable buildings extend across the top and bottom of the map, including eight residences of prominent Burlingtonians and two public buildings. Clockwise from the top left they are: Residence of J. N. Pomeroy (lawyer and judge); University of Vermont (the Main College Building now known as “Old Mill,” built 1825); residence of H. W. Catlin; residence of John Peck (listed as “merchant”); residence of Carlos Baxter; residence of J. W. Hicock (attorney, railroad developer, and UVM treasurer); Bank Block (a former commercial building); Grass Mount (Grasse Mount, the 1804 home of merchant Thaddeus Tuttle, and residence of governor Cornelius P. Van Ness from 1823 to 1826, now owned by UVM); residence of Sion E. Howard. Many of the men named here were large landowners in Burlington, with their names appearing on multiple plots. 

Presdee & Edwards published maps of New England towns in the early 1850s, following the same business model of landing sponsorships from local residents wishing to have their homes included and names listed. Their maps are now quite scarce and valued as records of land use, property ownership, and the appearance of historic structures.

Sarony & Major was a lithography firm based in New York. It was founded by Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896) of Quebec and Henry B. Major in 1846, later becoming Sarony, Major & Knapp when Joseph F. Knapp (ca. 1830–1889) became a partner in 1857. In their fifty-year run, the firm produced sheet music covers, tobacco box labels, trade cards, illustrations for government reports, maps, views and more. Sarony remained head of the art department until 1863, later going on to found a successful photography studio. The company continued as Major & Knapp until it was acquired by the American Lithographic Company in 1891. 

OCLC records four copies, at Harvard, the Clements Library, Vermont Historical Society, and Dartmouth.

REFERENCES: Last, 132-34. “Map of Burlington, Vermont, 1853” at the University of Vermont online. 

Item #9470

Price: $3,750.00

Add to Wish List