Scenes are drawn to scale: the sofa is 84 in wide, the desk 60 in, the door 80 in tall. Switch sizes above to compare.
Step 1 — set the scale. Drag the slider until the gold bar on the photo is the height of a standard doorway (80 in / 203 cm). Every size you pick is then drawn true to life.
Step 2 — drag the print to where it would hang, and change size or frame above to compare.
Antique Map Prints of American Cities
Bird's-Eye View of Detroit, 1889
Bird's Eye View, Showing About Three Miles Square, of the Central Portion of the City of Detroit, Michigan — Calvert Lithographing Co.
From the Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division · 1889
$129Charged in USD at checkout; local currency shown for reference.
Source scan:LOC. Rights statement of the archive: “The content of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division digitized collections is free to use and reuse unless a Rights Advisory statement is present that indicates otherwise. Credit Line: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.” Original map: Calvert Lithographing, 1889, col. map 30 x 50 cm.. Verified 2026-09-13.
This product is a new archival print made from a restored scan of that map. It is not an original antique and is not sold as one.
The story of this map
Detroit in 1889 was a river city of stoves, ships and railway cars, a decade or so before the first automobile rolled out of a local workshop. The Calvert Lithographing Company, a Detroit firm, drew this compact bird’s-eye view of the central three miles square of the city, published, as the sheet notes, through the kindness of the Imperial Life Insurance Company. Our restored print is made from the Library of Congress copy, the only 1889 view of Detroit in the Library’s panoramic map collection.
The drawing looks north across the Detroit River, so the docks and the vessels along the waterfront sit in the foreground and downtown rises directly behind them. Detroit’s great avenues fan out from the centre like the spokes of a wheel, and the artist has drawn every block between them building by building, with church spires, factory chimneys and the first tall office blocks breaking the skyline.
This is a print for anyone who loves Detroit’s history, and its compact size makes it easy to place: a desk wall, a kitchen, a hallway grouping. The original is small, so we keep the print formats small and medium where the line stays crisp. It belongs to our American Cities collection and pairs with the 1892 Currier & Ives view of Chicago or the 1826 map of Michigan Territory.
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.
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. The original is small (about 30 x 50 cm) and the scan modest, so the print is offered in small and medium formats only. 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.
Pairs well with
Hang them together — 10% off the second framed print
Informational purposes only, no warranties, not professional advice. All products are new archival prints made from restored scans of historical maps held by public archives; they are not original antiques. Colours vary by screen and by paper.
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