Edward Stanford
Stanford's Map of India, 1857
61.0 x 49.0
IC2904
Important folding wall map of India on four sheets showing the sub-continent at a pivotal moment in its history. Due its importance to the British Empire, India was mapped extensively...
Important folding wall map of India on four sheets showing the sub-continent at a pivotal moment in its history.
Due its importance to the British Empire, India was mapped extensively from the earliest stages of British activity. The East India Company was well aware of the importance of maps and the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India was both proposed and enacted with their approval and support.
Stanford’s was a fledgling cartographical firm established in 1853 and one of their first prestigious, large wall maps was this map of India first issued in 1857. The large cartouche on the upper right quotes their sources, namely the archives of the British East India Company as well the Surveyor General of the Survey of India. The “other sources” was likely to be the Great Trigonometrical Survey and maps made by railway companies.
Stanford’s map encompasses both political, infrastructural and geographical elements. The extent of British possessions are shown via colour coding which is explained on the lower part of the map. This same lower part also drily lists a historical number of acquisitions by the British on the sub-continent. This table is entitled “Chronological Table of the Various Acquisitions made to the British Empire in India”. This bland title belies the social, political and geographical changes made to the land during British rule.
The map also lists much of the infrastructural effort made by the East India Company to unite the disparate regions of India; primarily through the railways. Although completed sections the lines are still fairly limited by this time, they are dwarfed by the sheer scale of the ambition of “planned railways”. These are shown in red and blue lines respectively. Other infrastructure changes include the introduction of a Post Office and the conversion of the Great Trunk Road from a dirt track to a hard surface road.
Although this map does not indicate the turmoil that was present in India in 1857, its publication date, the same year as the First War of Indian Independence or the Great Indian Mutiny is significant.
Several interesting insets are present on the map. Two are schematic distance charts centered on Bombay and Madras record mileage between those two important centres and other great cities in India. The lower right shows the newly acquired territories of the Company after the Second Anglo Burmese War of 1852-3.
The map was highly successful, with at least two other editions, in 1858 and 1863 being published, although there were likely to have been more. As was usual with Stanford, these later editions were updated to reflect changes.
This example is unusual in that it is in four sections. Most other examples we have seen have been in two sections. Original colour. Original case. [Folded] [IC2904]
Due its importance to the British Empire, India was mapped extensively from the earliest stages of British activity. The East India Company was well aware of the importance of maps and the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India was both proposed and enacted with their approval and support.
Stanford’s was a fledgling cartographical firm established in 1853 and one of their first prestigious, large wall maps was this map of India first issued in 1857. The large cartouche on the upper right quotes their sources, namely the archives of the British East India Company as well the Surveyor General of the Survey of India. The “other sources” was likely to be the Great Trigonometrical Survey and maps made by railway companies.
Stanford’s map encompasses both political, infrastructural and geographical elements. The extent of British possessions are shown via colour coding which is explained on the lower part of the map. This same lower part also drily lists a historical number of acquisitions by the British on the sub-continent. This table is entitled “Chronological Table of the Various Acquisitions made to the British Empire in India”. This bland title belies the social, political and geographical changes made to the land during British rule.
The map also lists much of the infrastructural effort made by the East India Company to unite the disparate regions of India; primarily through the railways. Although completed sections the lines are still fairly limited by this time, they are dwarfed by the sheer scale of the ambition of “planned railways”. These are shown in red and blue lines respectively. Other infrastructure changes include the introduction of a Post Office and the conversion of the Great Trunk Road from a dirt track to a hard surface road.
Although this map does not indicate the turmoil that was present in India in 1857, its publication date, the same year as the First War of Indian Independence or the Great Indian Mutiny is significant.
Several interesting insets are present on the map. Two are schematic distance charts centered on Bombay and Madras record mileage between those two important centres and other great cities in India. The lower right shows the newly acquired territories of the Company after the Second Anglo Burmese War of 1852-3.
The map was highly successful, with at least two other editions, in 1858 and 1863 being published, although there were likely to have been more. As was usual with Stanford, these later editions were updated to reflect changes.
This example is unusual in that it is in four sections. Most other examples we have seen have been in two sections. Original colour. Original case. [Folded] [IC2904]
