Baltimore, as a population and economic center, served as a natural subject for mapmakers. The first detailed maps date from the 1790s and feature the early city’s three distinct, yet rapidly encroaching, areas: Baltimore, Old Town, and Fell’s Point.

Thomas Poppleton’s 1822 plan of Baltimore merges practicality with art and civic propaganda with decoration. Surrounding his work with a series of beautifully engraved vignettes of prominent city buildings, Poppleton boasted the municipal achievements of what was then America’s third largest city.
 

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Exhibit Home Page

Room 1 Early Prototypes
Room 2 Chesapeake Bay
Room 3 Maryland's Counties and Neighbors
Room 4 The Mapping of Baltimore

MAPS: Room 4