MacRae-Brazier Map – Chapter 3: In a previous post, we discussed Wellington Williams’s publication in 1854 of a (not so) new map of North Carolina, printed from the resurrected copper plates of the 1833 MacRae-Brazier map. Those plates had more lives than a cat. Their next reincarnation resulted in one of the strangest North Carolina maps ever published. That is the topic of this North Carolina Map Blog post.
When I first saw this bizarre map of NC at the Library of Congress many years ago, I was overwhelmed by its size and the beautiful vignettes decorating the top and bottom borders. A careful inspection revealed that the main part of the map was printed from the 1833 MacRae-Brazier copper plates, with minor alterations from the Wellington Williams map published in 1854-55 from those same plates. However, this map is much larger than the MacRae-Brazier or Williams maps. The decorative borders at the top and bottom, and most of the cartographic detail in Virginia, were added via lithography.
I was determined to learn the identity and location of all the unlabeled buildings and homes. Only three of the 18 vignettes were labeled, two being in North Carolina and one in Virginia. Surely the unlabeled vignettes were important homes and businesses in North Carolina, right?
Imagine my surprise when magnification of a vignette in the top border revealed a stage coach with “Rondout & Kingston” on the coach. In the background, the lettering on the shaded side of the building: MANSION HOUSE.
A quick visit to the map located Rondout and Kingston on the Hudson River in New York! The Mansion House building still stands, as seen on Google Street View:
With that surprising and equally disappointing discovery, I quickly lost interest in this cartographic oddity until learning, several years later, of the existence of Pearce’s spectacular map of North Carolina, published in late 1859. (We will cover the Pearce map in the next chapter.) It became apparent that this mystery map must have been printed as a publisher’s mock up for Pearce, showing what his NC map could look like with appropriate decorative elements. Pearce had lobbied unsuccessfully for such a design feature for what became the 1857 Cooke map. Coinciding with my learning of the existence of the Pearce map, mid 1850s wall maps of NY counties came to my attention. Many of these have similar decorative elements. Kingston is in Ulster County, so that was the first county map to examine. Voila! The Ulster County map includes the vignette shown above (lower right corner) and includes a label that reads as follows: MANSION HOUSE, Rondout, N.Y. Geo. F. vonBeck Proprietor
A search of other digitized NY county maps from that era enabled identification of all but two of the unlabeled vignettes. An appeal for help to the NYLINE listserv in 2014 was answered very quickly by Holly Sammons, Librarian at the Onondaga County Public Library in Syracuse. She identified the last two unknowns on an 1858 Monroe County map. Each vignette and its NY county of origin, if applicable, are identified in the following Table. (Positions T1-T9 indicate vignettes in the Top border, numbered from left to right; B1-B9 indicate vignettes in the Bottom border, also numbered from the left.)
| Position | Vignette Description | NY county map |
| T1 | Weleyan Female College Murfreesboro, N.C. | Not Applicable |
| T2 | UNITED STATES HOTEL AVON SPRINGS. Wm. Cushing Propr. | Livingston |
| T3 | Residence of Jason Baker, Esq. Brighton | Monroe |
| T4 | MANSION HOUSE, Rondout, N.Y. Geo. F. vonBeck Propr. | Ulster |
| T5 | PROSPECT HILL Residence of JACOB H. OSGOODBY ESQr. Nunda. | Livingston |
| T6 | Res. of H.G. DICKINSON, Esqr LYONS. W. Co. | Wayne |
| T7 | Res:of ZEBULON MOORE, Esqr, LYONS, WAYNE, Co. | Wayne |
| T8 | Residence of M.L. HEATH ESQr. Geneseo | Livingston |
| T9 | EDGEWORTH FEMALE SEMINARY Greensboro, N.C. | N/A |
| B1 | HOLLINS INSTITUTE Botetourt Springs VA | N/A |
| B2 | COURT HOUSE, LYONS, WAYNE Co. | Wayne |
| B3 | MOUNT PLEASANT, Farm Res. of R.F. Norris, Esqr. Sodus | Wayne |
| B4 | LOCUST GROVE, Res. of Darius D. Hunt Esqr. West Macedon | Wayne |
| B5 | GRAHAMs HOTEL, LYONS, WAYNE Co. | Wayne |
| B6 | HIGHLAND TERRACE Country Res: of H.H. Wheeler Esqr SOUTH BUTLER WAYNE Co. N.Y. | Wayne |
| B7 | Residence of E. GASKIN ESQ. Pittsford | Monroe |
| B8 | SEMINARY AT DANSVILLE. | Livingston |
| B9 | Res. of H.G. HOTCHKISS, Esqr LYONS, WAYNE, Co. | Wayne |
This peculiar North Carolina map bears no date and no copyright, printer, or publisher imprints. My guess is the map was published by J.H. French of Philadelphia since his name is found on each of the New York county maps from which the “foreign” vignettes were borrowed. The copy of this map in the Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress is the only known original.
Stay tuned; we’ll venture to Chapter 3 in our next blog post. If you want to subscribe for email notifications of future posts, enter your email address in the box by the “Subscribe” button near the top of this page (and the home page). Once you press the “Subscribe” button, you’ll receive an email message requiring you to verify your subscription. Thanks for tuning in.
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