Description
North Dakota and South Dakota are divided into states, rather than shown as one territory. Oklahoma is divided into OKLAHOMA [territory] and “INDIAN T’Y” indicating a date of 1890 to no later than 1907, consistent with the 1891 copyright of the globe. Another example of this globe, sold by George Glazer Gallery, inscribed underneath in pencil “Christmas 1896, Zelma Stone,” is further indication that a globe such as the offered one was produced in the 1890s.
In the last decades of the 19th century, Chicago became the leading center for commercial cartographic publishing in the United States. As the hub of the expanding American railroad system, it was logical for Chicago publishers to incorporate the latest railway routes into a complex mapping of America. In addition, cerography, an innovative wax-engraving printing technique, was adopted by Chicago publishers enabling larger printings and more efficient updates of maps and atlases.
Rand McNally and Company became a preeminent publisher of maps and atlases in Chicago in the 1870s and 1880s, then ventured into globe making in the 1890s, and continues in business today. As noted by scholar and librarian Cynthia H. Peters, the company “has become synonymous with mapmaking in American life,” and “[t]heir success highlights the movement of the American map publishing industry’s center of gravity from the East to the Midwest.”
Reference: Peters, Cynthia H. “Rand, McNally in the Nineteenth Century: Reaching for a National Market.” Chicago History: The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society, Spring 1984, Vol.8, No. 1, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago: 1984. pp. 64-72.
Oval Cartouche: Rand, McNally & Co.’s/ NEW EIGHT-INCH/ TERRESTRIAL GLOBE
Legends in ocean near South Pole: Rand McNally & Co’s/ New 8-Inch Terrestrial Globe. Copyright 1891,/ by Rand, McNally & Co