Michigan Territory Map 1826 — Antique Map Print, Framed

The story of this map

In 1826 Michigan was still a territory, and most of it was unsurveyed forest. John Farmer, a Detroit surveyor and mapmaker, drew this map of the part that had been measured, and had it engraved in New York by Balch and Stiles. It is the map that settlers coming down the Erie Canal and across Lake Erie would have studied before buying land.

The hand colouring gives it a clean, graphic look: the survey townships form a patchwork across the southern peninsula, the Great Lakes shorelines frame the sheet, and Detroit sits on its river with the first roads striking out toward the interior. The scale of eight miles to an inch is stated right in the title, and the whole map has the confident, orderly feel of the public land survey. The Library of Congress copy was once owned and signed by Millard Fillmore.

It is a lovely piece for a Michigan home, a cottage up north, a Detroit office or anyone whose family came in with the first wave of settlement. Its near-square shape suits our square frames. It belongs to our Antique Maps of US States collection and pairs naturally with the 1831 Ohio wall map.

Printed to order on archival matte paper and framed in the country of delivery.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Antique Map of Michigan Territory, 1826: archive scan compared with the restored print

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration plan: crop scan margins, balance colour cast and levels while keeping the paper tone, remove library stamps and scanner artefacts if present, gentle sharpening. No repainting of original content.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.

Questions

Is this an original antique map?

No. It is a new archival print of a restored high-resolution scan of the 1826 map held by the Library of Congress. We never sell originals.

What is actually printed on this map?

The southern, surveyed part of Michigan Territory more than a decade before statehood: the grid of survey townships in hand colour, the shores of Lakes Erie, St. Clair and Huron, Detroit and the first roads and settlements heading inland.

How big is the map on the sheet?

The original is a nearly square sheet of about 52 x 56 cm (20 x 22 in). Our prints run from 12 x 16 in to 24 x 32 in and include square 20 x 20 and 24 x 24 options that suit its proportions.

Does it come framed?

Choose it. Every map comes as an archival matte paper print, a stretched canvas, or framed in black, white or natural oak. Framed prints are made and framed in the country of delivery, ready to hang.

Colours vary between screens and paper. The tone you see here is a close match to the archival matte print; framed prints have no glass glare in these previews.

Pairs well with

Hang them together — 10% off the second framed print

Antique Map of Ohio, 1831

Woodruff & Guilford · Boston Public Library, Leventhal Map Center

$129 18×24 in framed · paper from $35

Burr Map of New York State, 1839

David H. Burr · Library of Congress

$129 24×18 in framed · paper from $35

The discount is applied automatically at checkout when two or more framed prints are in the cart.

Size	Metric	Best for
16×12 in	41×30 cm	Desk, shelf, small wall, gallery groupings
20×16 in	51×41 cm	Above a desk or console, hallway, bedroom
20×20 in	51×51 cm	Over a sofa or bed, statement wall, office
24×18 in	61×46 cm	Above a desk or console, hallway, bedroom
24×24 in	61×61 cm	Over a sofa or bed, statement wall, office
30×24 in	76×61 cm	Over a sofa or bed, statement wall, office
32×24 in	81×61 cm	Over a sofa or bed, statement wall, office
40×30 in	102×76 cm	Over a sofa or bed, statement wall, office

Antique Map of Michigan Territory, 1826

Before and after

Restoration notes

Hang them together — 10% off the second framed print