Genuine Antique Map
1842
Maker: SDUK
Antique hand-colored Boston city plan prior to the fill. Published in 1842 under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK). Very good overall antique condition, original color, slight discoloration along the outside of the blue-green color probably caused by a second color that has faded. Map measures approx. 14.5 x 11.5 inches to the neatline. Framed. Total size including the frame is approx. 24 x 20.5 inches.
This map shows Boston at a fascinating moment in the city's history: the Mill Dam had been completed but additional plans for what is now Back Bay had not yet been conceived. In 1814, the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation was chartered to construct a milldam, which would also serve as a toll road connecting Boston to Watertown, bypassing Boston Neck. The dam prevented the natural tides from flushing sewage out to sea, creating severe sanitary and odor problems. With costs higher and power lower than expected, in the end, the project was an economic failure, and in 1857 a massive project was begun to "make land" by filling the area enclosed by the dam. Present-day Back Bay itself was filled by 1882; the project reached existing land at what is now Kenmore Square in 1890, and finished in the Fens in 1900.
Genuine Antique Map from 1842
Item Number: CMST166