Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Antique Pictorial Bird's Eye Map 1893

The Bird's Eye map was a popular and charming cartographic form used to depict U. S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Known also as bird's-eye views, birdseye maps, panoramic maps, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are non-photographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective. Artists, including the prolific Bird's Eye cartographers Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, Lucien R. Burleigh, Henry Wellge, and Oakley H. Bailey, would travel town-to-town and, as overhead views in those days were limited to hot-air balloon flights, give the citizens an otherwise-unobtainable perspective. The majority of these lovely old maps were created for Northeastern U.S. cities and towns, with most other regions being represented- although some sparsely. We've taken great care to lovingly retouch this collection of vintage maps by removing the most distracting defects while still preserving their historic charm.