The Library of Congress

Railroad Maps, 1828-1900

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Go directly to the collection, Railroad Maps, 1828-1900, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Railroad Maps, 1828-1900 provides students an opportunity to study a form of transportation and its documentation while also improving their historical thinking skills. Using the collection's maps in comparative exercises, students will develop their chronological thinking and historical comprehension, while other activities draw on research and role playing to develop analysis, interpretation, and judgment.

Chronological Thinking

To look for change over time, students can compare the oldest map in the collection to the ones more recently created. Have students choose a geographic region from the Geographic Location Index. Then view the maps in chronological order. Considering maps as reflections of the railroad during the time periods in which they were created, students can look for and analyze evidence of how railroad transportation changed.

• Where were railroad tracks first located? Where were additional tracks constructed?
• How did the land around the railroad tracks change over time? What factors influenced these changes?
• What new cities are shown on the maps? How did older cities change?
• Was there a time of greater or less growth of railroad usage? Or was growth consistent over this time?

Map showing the position of Chicago..., 185?.

Railroad map of Illinois, 1898.

Students can also see how the technology changed over time by searching across the American Memory prints and photograph collections on train, locomotive, or railroad.

Historical Comprehension

Humans have long searched for the easiest, quickest, and most efficient ways to transport themselves and their goods from one place to another. Railroads provided people a new option for carrying heavy loads greater distances at faster speeds.

Students can better understand the impact and use of the railroad by comparing the benefits and disadvantages of railroad transportation to other forms available at the time. Have them assume the role of a distributor looking to ship their goods from one location to another. For example, decide the year will be 1859 and they are cotton distributors in the South, or Northerners shipping manufactured products. Have the students answer the following questions by searching for maps in the collection by the date and region specified in the scenario.

What forms of transportation are available between the places your goods need to travel? (Search on the keyword phrase Map of the canals & rail roads of the United States to find maps depicting various forms of transportation). What routes do these modes of transport travel? What are the benefits and disadvantages of each type of transportation available? If the goal is to have the goods arrive as soon as possible, which transportation option would you choose? Does the size, amount, or type of product you are shipping dictate that one mode of transportation would be better than another?

Sherman & Smith's railroad, steam boat & stage route map of New England, New-York and Canada, 1850.

Inform students of the corruption within the railroad industry. If they were looking to ship goods, they may have been charged higher or lower rates than others depending on the size of their shipment, where they were shipping to and from, and other factors. Discuss the affect of President Grover Cleveland signing the Interstate Commerce Act In 1887 which forbade excessive charges, pools, rebates and rate discrimination, and created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to guard against violations of the act.

For an historical account of the corruption of the Southern Pacific Railroad, students can read My Own Story, 1919 by journalist Fremont Older (1856-1935) Parts 4 and 7 in the collection California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation

Students can learn to analyze and interpret maps by determining how land grants affected railroads. Many federal policies are actualized in physical characteristics of the American landscape. Railroad Maps, 1828-1900 allows students to see the effects of government policies of land grants and rights-of-way on patterns of settlement. Between 1850 and 1872 the government ceded public lands to states and railroad companies to promote railroad construction in the West and South. In return, the railroads were required to transport goods for the government at reduced rates.

To see examples of how these land grants shaped the landscape, students can search the collection on land grant and look for the swatches of land given to railroads. How did these land grants influence the patterns of development of railroads? And how did the railroad then influence urbanization patterns? Look for evidence of settlement along the train routes.

Map showing the location of the road and the land grant of the Atlantic and Pacific R.R. in Arizona ... in New Mexico, 1883.

At the bottom of the map appears the following text:
"Explanations
A full Township contains 36 Sections, each containing 640 acres, more or less, numbered as above.
Even or shaded Sections belong to the Government.
Surveyed Townships are indicated thus: + "

Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making

When railroad companies needed to decide where to build new railroad lines, many issues were analyzed. Students can read The Transcontinental Railroad from the special presentation, History of Railroads and Maps, and then list the geographic, economic, political, and social factors influencing the selection of the route for the first transcontinental railroad. In addition, they can discuss the different goals people sought to achieve with a transcontinental railroad. For example, while Abraham Lincoln saw the transcontinental railroad as a way to unite East and West into one nation, builder Theodore D. Judah inspired his co-investors with promises of wealth and fame. In researching the best route, the government designated the Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to survey possible routes to the Pacific in 1853. Why was the Secretary of War chosen for this task? What goals might he have had in mind?

Students can search on trans-continental or transcontinental and proposed to see researched train routes. Students can compare the process of choosing railroad routes to that of deciding where to construct interstate highways.

[Outline map of the United States showing proposed railroad routes to the Pacific], 1853.

Map of the proposed Northern Route for a railroad to the Pacific, 1853.

Historical Research Capabilities

The study of railroad maps provides students the opportunity to consider the importance of maintaining an historic record and to research the creation and use of railroad maps. Ask students about the maps and train schedules they may have used in their lives. Do they still have these items? If students use public transportation in their daily lives, ask what they do with their old maps when the routes are changed and revised maps are printed. Most students will have thrown away these maps.

Map and guide of the elevated railroads of New York City, c1881.

With this perspective, students can discuss why the maps in this collection were saved and are presented here. For example, search on New York City to find maps of the city's train system.

Are these maps somehow "more important" then the maps we use today? Were they more important to their users than railroad maps are to those who use them today? Students are likely to arrive at the conclusion that, among other things, the number of maps produced factors into the value of each map of that type. To understand when printed materials became less precious, students can research printing techniques to see when mass production of maps became more efficient. As a continuation of this study, students can also research when in history private citizens would have needed train maps. When did people begin traveling by train? Where were they going? On vacation? Moving to a new place? Commuting to work? How do these uses relate to the maps' value?

For additional information on the history of railroad mapping techniques, students can read the special presentation History of Railroads and Maps. The bibliography, Read More About It! contains suggestions of further reading on railroads.