Colton, G.W. & C.B. "Map Showing the Line of the Norfolk and Western and Shenandoah Valley Railroads and the Connection with the Virginia, Tennessee & Georgia Air Line."

G.W. & C.B. Colton. "Map Showing the Line of the Norfolk and Western and Shenandoah Valley Railroads and the Connection with the Virginia, Tennessee & Georgia Air Line."

New York: G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., 1881. 19 x 25 1/2. Lithograph. Original highlight color. Excellent condition. From First Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company. Philadelphia, 1882.  Octavo. Paper covers. 51 pp. Excellent condition.  

A map of the railroad lines in the American southeast produced by one of the most important map publishers of the second half of the nineteenth century, the Colton firm out of New York. This firm, which went through a number of different manifestations, issued both atlas maps and attractive folding maps such as this one. This map was issued to accompany the first annual report, for 1881, of the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company. The map is folded into the back of the pamphlet, and its copious detail of the railroad systems in the American southeast would have provided excellent illumination for the annual report. Detail is given of rivers and towns from Massachusetts to Iowa and from Florida to Louisiana. All the myriad railroads in this region are also shown, which those of the "Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia Air Line" highlighted in color. This railroad system was comprised of the Norfolk and Western, Shenandoah Valley, East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia railroad systems. Ship connections from these lines to Baltimore, New York and Boston are also indicated. Scarce and of considerable historic note, this is a fine document of the American southeast from about a century ago.