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A map showing some of the historic sites and places of interest in Lexington, Massachusetts.
[Boston?, no publisher], 1931. Hand-colored lithograph, 23.5” x 18 15/16”, inscribed in ink by the mapmaker in lower margin: “To Cynthia, with love, from Dorothy Linscott Clarke.” CONDITION: Very good, mounted on paperboard. A rare and historically-rich pictorial map by Dorothy Linscott Clark depicting the town of Lexington, Mass., inscribed by her to a friend. Clarke’s vibrant rendering of Lexington is centered around, as one would expect, the town’s Revolutionary War heritage. Other sites of historical interest from the colonial period and Early Republic figure prominently as well. The map depicts historic homes with owner names, civic buildings (post offices, taverns, schools, and churches), greens, natural features (such as brooks, ponds, and hills), mills, the town cemetery, and other sites of interest. A dotted blue line running through town indicates the route taken by Paul Revere along what became Massachusetts Avenue during his famous Midnight Ride. Small vignettes of Minutemen, cannons, farmers, and animals further enrich the composition. Although focused on the Revolution, Clarke’s map is intended not as a snapshot of the town at that time—since several included structures postdate the battle—but as a thoughtfully assembled overview of Lexington's early history. On the morning of April 19th, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired on the Lexington Town Common (now Lexington Battle Green) as a company of Massachusetts Minutemen led by Captain John Parker confronted British soldiers on their way to destroy a munitions stockpile at Concord. The map makes reference to these events and others through annotations. Examples include: “Birthplace of Capt. John Parker and his grandson Theodore Parker”; “Home of Jonathan Harrington—last survivor of Rev.”; and “Buckman Tavern… here the Minute-men awaited the British.” Other annotations speak generally to town history, such as “Ralph Waldo Emerson preached here,” or “Road to ye Indian trading post.” The upper part of the map is dominated by a large compass rose, with northwest pointing upward. The composition is framed by an ornamental border featuring vignettes of Minutemen, the town seal, Revolutionary War artifacts, important buildings, and scenes from the battle. A title cartouche appears in the upper left of the map, below which are listed four historic sites labeled A–D: These are the site of the Battle of Lexington (A) and three historic homes of residents who played a role in the battle—Jonathan Harrington (B), Daniel Harrington (C), and Marrett Munroe (D). The lower left of the map features an inset of the Battle Green, and in the lower right appears an illustration of the Battle Line Boulder, an 1884 monument commemorating the battle. Dorothy Linscott Clarke (1903–1992) was a pictorial mapmaker active from the 1930s to the 1960s. She was married to newspaperman and advertising consultant Charles C. Clarke (d. 1969). The couple lived in Hampton, New Hampshire and Kennebunk, Maine. Other maps to her credit include A Picture Map of Noah’s Ark for Children (1930s), A Map of Mother Goose Land (1933), Historical Picture Map of Vermont (1939), A Map of Worcester County in Massachusetts (1947), and New Hampshire’s Famous Seacoast Region (1964).
Item #9691
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