Boardwalk Bluesboy
04-04-2007, 06:05 PM
Hi everybody. Here is a rare, beautifuly drawn 1885 map of Lake Winnipesaukee (in color!), showing the route of the Lady of the Lake. The map was bound into the first edition of the Boston & Lowell Railroad's "Summer Saunterings", a guidebook to "pleasant places among the mountains, lakes, and valleys of New Hampshire, Vermont and Canada."
Here is a link to the book cover:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/Largejpgs/summersaunterings.html
You might be interested to know that it took me several hours of work to post the map to my website. First, I had to gingerly reposition the delicate map several times on the scanner and take several test scans before I determined the best procedure for scanning the map. I actually scanned the map in two passes, with one pass being the top half of the map and the other the bottom half. Fortunately I have a scanner with a legal-size bed or it would have taken more than 2 passes. Then, I used Photoshop to carefully stitch the two images together.
Here is a link to the full scale detailed map:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/Largejpgs/1885map.html
Those with the time can compare this map to the 1881 B&M map of Lake Winnipiseogee and Vicinity posted by Rattlesnake Girl here:
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4321
and note the differences.
Of course, the main difference being that these maps were prepared by competing railroads with competing steamships. Another main difference was that by 1885 the Boston and Lowell railroad had taken over the Boston, Concord, and Montreal railroad, and the line running past Weirs Beach was now called the White Mountains division. Sometime later the Boston & Lowell itself was taken over, by the Boston and Maine, which reached its peak in 1915, when it controlled 2300 route miles of track, traversed by 1200 steam locomotives, and had 28,000 employees.
These links originate from the WeirsBeach.com history page at:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/topten/reason9.html
With all respects to Rattlesnake Gal, I think you are going to spend more time perusing this map than the earlier 1881 map, as it is in color!
Enjoy!
Here is a link to the book cover:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/Largejpgs/summersaunterings.html
You might be interested to know that it took me several hours of work to post the map to my website. First, I had to gingerly reposition the delicate map several times on the scanner and take several test scans before I determined the best procedure for scanning the map. I actually scanned the map in two passes, with one pass being the top half of the map and the other the bottom half. Fortunately I have a scanner with a legal-size bed or it would have taken more than 2 passes. Then, I used Photoshop to carefully stitch the two images together.
Here is a link to the full scale detailed map:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/Largejpgs/1885map.html
Those with the time can compare this map to the 1881 B&M map of Lake Winnipiseogee and Vicinity posted by Rattlesnake Girl here:
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4321
and note the differences.
Of course, the main difference being that these maps were prepared by competing railroads with competing steamships. Another main difference was that by 1885 the Boston and Lowell railroad had taken over the Boston, Concord, and Montreal railroad, and the line running past Weirs Beach was now called the White Mountains division. Sometime later the Boston & Lowell itself was taken over, by the Boston and Maine, which reached its peak in 1915, when it controlled 2300 route miles of track, traversed by 1200 steam locomotives, and had 28,000 employees.
These links originate from the WeirsBeach.com history page at:
http://www.weirsbeach.com/topten/reason9.html
With all respects to Rattlesnake Gal, I think you are going to spend more time perusing this map than the earlier 1881 map, as it is in color!
Enjoy!