American whaling peaked in 1858, but it still found a place on this 1880 fisheries chart. That year, though whaling was still a lucrative business in Massachusetts, a paltry $408 worth of whaling was done in North Carolina. The chart also includes a neat world map of whaling grounds. Some fun facts about whaling: Nineteenth century whalers only got paid for their catch (called the "lay") so every voyage was a complete gamble. Ships that...
For many years, thanks to lax residency requirements, the state of Nevada had a monopoly on American divorce. Have a look at this Marital Status print and you'll see that Nevada's monopoly actually goes back a long way. Though it wasn't until many years later that divorce ranches cropped up in Reno, Nevada already had the highest rate of divorce in the nation back in 1890. Check out the print for...
According to this print of Occupations (which includes charts concerning "Total Females Occupied" and "Increase in Occupations"), there were more women engaged in "useful occupations" in New York than in any other state in 1880. (if you go by ratio instead of total number, South Carolina takes the cake.) But what was considered a "useful occupation" in 1880? This chart of Occupations by Race and Nationality provides some clues. Plus,...
In August, the New York Times published a fascinating collection of infographics showing how Americans have moved between states since 1900. But what about before 1900? Turns out the 1890 Statistical Atlas had that covered. A series of Interstate Migration prints map the "density of the natives" of various states. Check out the prints: AL, AZ, AK, CA, CO, CT DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL IN, KS, Indian Territory,...
If you google "superior instruction of women," the top two hits are our Education print and the same print over at our sister site, Handsome Atlas. This is bad news if you want to find out more about what the makers of this map ("Charles Scribner's sons," evidently) meant, as I did. But it is very good news for anyone who'd like to start her very own School for the Superior Instruction of Women:...
Ever wonder how wealth was distributed in the United States around 1870? Wonder no more. Well, you might still wonder a bit. For example, what about wealth in Indian Territory?
Wealth at the time was on a completely different scale.
Simpler times, they were. Imagine what the rent on a New York apartment must have been!
Check out the Distributed Wealth print!
This print of government land grants is dense with information about railways, canals, and wagon roads. The map itself is neat-looking, but it's also surrounded by bar graphs, some of which contain pretty bewildering data. First off, the bars for America, the United States, and Europe go waaay farther to the right. But let's have a look at those numbers. The United States, which saw a huge boom in railroad-building beginning in...
Let's take a moment to contemplate how some terms stay in use for ages and others just disappear: Have a look at this Crime and Delinquency print. For starters, check out the title: Defective classes?! Let's bring that one back. Sorry guys, I don't hang out with people who are, you know, defective. Some terms on here are familiar. Juvenile delinquents? For better or for worse, that term is certainly still around. But...
Once upon a time, John Wesley Powell suggested a radical way to govern the western United States: by watershed. In 1890, he created a lovely map in watercolors called Arid Region of the United States, Showing Drainage Districts for the U.S. Geological Survey. Powell believed this would be a good system because in such a dry part of the country, water was bound to be the most pressing issue. Water certainly is a...
This print featuring 1880 maps and charts of deaths from various diseases in males raises all sorts of questions: Why were there so many pneumonia deaths in Washington state? Deaths from "diseases of the heart" in New Mexico? Deaths from "diseases of the digestive system" in Utah? But perhaps the most surprising thing about this print is not the data itself but rather the source: So the numbers for these federally-authorized death-maps came from life...
Checking out this map of U.S. hops production from 1890, it appears that New York was once a pretty happening place for hops. These days, U.S. hops production is concentrated in the Northwest, and New York isn't seeing much of the action. (According to the Hop Growers of America, who publish thorough statistical reports on such things, about 77% of U.S. hops production in 2013 took place in Washington, with Oregon and Idaho...
On this map of early United States territorial grants, only one point is labeled: Old Point Comfort, on the East Coast, right where Virginia and North Carolina meet. Why? Old Point Comfort lies at the southeast tip of the Virginia Peninsula. Its name came from an early group of Jamestown settlers, who anchored their ship nearby and "rowed to a point where they found a channel which put them in good comfort." (The...
