Seth Kaller, Inc.

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This bold broadside, published in Boston, consists of an overview map of the entire eastern United States, with free states hand-colored red; maps of Baltimore; the District of Columbia; Norfolk Harbor and Hampton Roads with Fort Monroe. The largest maps, extending half the width of the broadside each are of Charleston Harbor with details of its fortifications and of the Pensacola Navy Yard and Fort Pickens. The broadside also includes images of Andrew Jackson with the quotation, “The union must & shall be preserved”; Abraham Lincoln; Winfield Scott, with the quotation “Please God, I will fight many years for this Union, and that too, under the protective folds of the star spangled banner”; and Major Robert Anderson, “The Hero of Sumter” and Routes and Distances by both steamboat and railroad from Boston and Washington to various parts of the nation.

Inventory #25740       Price: $3,500

Historical Background
After Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860, several southern states began the process of seceding from the Union, and South Carolina led the way, adopting an ordinance of secession on December 20. Even before seceding, South Carolinians were preparing for war. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, six other southern states had seceded and together with South Carolina had formed the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.

Northern citizens watched anxiously to see how the new Lincoln administration would respond. Key federal resources included fortifications within both states that had seceded and slave states that had not yet seceded. Forces loyal to the United States still held Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida. Observers were also concerned about the loyalty of slave states Virginia and Maryland. Those states held Fort Monroe at the confluence of the James River and Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk, Fort McHenry that had valiantly guarded Baltimore during the War of 1812, the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry made famous by John Brown’s abortive raid eighteen months earlier, and of course, the national capital at Washington with its Navy Yard.

The Confederate bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861 began the American Civil War, but Union forces managed to retain control of Fort Monroe despite the secession of Virginia later that same month. They also retained control of Fort Pickens in Florida throughout the war, though Confederates controlled Pensacola. Union forces destroyed the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in April 1861 before abandoning it, and the town changed hands several times over the course of the next three years.

This broadside appealed to a northern public eager to understand the areas where the early actions of the Civil War took place and served as a visual complement to the newspaper reports from these areas.

L. Prang & Co.(1860-1897) was founded by Prussian-born lithographer and publisher Louis Prang (1824-1909) in Boston. During the Civil War, the company created war maps often distributed by newspapers, reproductions of art work, and portraits of famous people. Prang began selling greeting cards in England in 1873 and began selling Christmas cards in America in 1874, earning him the title “father of the American Christmas card.” Prang was an early employer of women artists, and the company employed more than one hundred women by 1881. In 1897, L. Prang and Company merged with the Taber Art Company and moved to Springfield, Massachusetts.

Condition: Very Good. Professionally cleaned, mended and backed.