RAILROAD MAPS OF THE UNITED STATES A Selective Annotated Bibliography of the Original 19th-Century Maps in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress

The Library's holdings include railroad maps issued for a variety of purposes. Among the collection are official printed government surveys conducted to determine the most practical railroad routes, Pacific Railroad surveys, U.S. General Land Office maps which show land grants to railroads, surveys for specific right-of-way, and general surveys prepared to accompany progress reports of individual railroads. Other maps were published specifically to promote particular lines, some of which were never built. Also represented in the collection are maps issued by commercial publishers, intended for ticket agents and the public, as route guides to encourage commerce and travel to newly settled areas west of the Mississippi. This annotated list reveals the scope of the railroad map collection and highlights the development of railroad mapping in 19th century America. Described are 622 maps chosen from more than 3000 railroad maps and about 2000 regional, state, and county maps, and other maps which show internal improvements of the past century.