Lloyd’s Topographical Map of the Hudson River: From the Head of Navigation at Troy to its Confluence with the Ocean at Sandy Hook / projected by J.T. Lloyd.

During the mid-19th century, technological advancements in steamboat travel, rapid industrialization, and the creation of the leisure class centered the American economy and cultural imagination on the Mississippi and Hudson rivers. This mammoth “ribbon map,” which is more than 15 feet long, is an example of the cartographic ingenuity used during this time to faithfully depict these rivers while still producing a map portable enough for a traveler or navigator. The map’s construction precisely renders the twists and turns of the Hudson and was designed to be unrolled as if one were sailing on the map. The river and both banks are presented in almost minute detail. Towns, townships, topography, roads, bridges, steamboat channels, railroads, and names of property owners, as well as sandbars and other hazards to navigation, are meticulously illustrated. The importance of the Hudson River in the economic and cultural life of the United States at this time is evidenced not only by the care taken to produce the map, but also by the fact that it was issued in multiple editions because it sold so well.