Detroit River Nautical Chart, 1894

The story of this map

The Detroit River is only twenty-eight miles long, but in the 1890s more tonnage passed through it than through any other waterway in the world — the ore boats from Superior, the grain from Chicago, the coal going up. The US Lake Survey charted it at 1:40,000 in 1894 with the depths shown in gradient tints, which gives the sheet its look: a blue-grey river winding between the pale banks of Michigan and Ontario, Belle Isle in the middle of the city reach, Fighting Island and Grosse Ile below, and the marshes at the mouth opening into Lake Erie.

Detroit and Windsor face each other across the narrows with their wharves and ferry slips marked; the whole city is here as a waterfront. The survey’s water-level table and authorities sit in the margin, and a notice from 1894 is tipped onto the Leventhal copy’s corner and has been kept.

It is a tall sheet, and it hangs like one. Restored from the Leventhal Map Center’s scan; pairs with the 1852 chart of the same river and the 1889 bird’s-eye view of the city.

Before and after

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

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration: trimmed the scanner margins, balanced levels while keeping the paper tone (65% of the original colour retained), removed dust and specks, applied gentle sharpening. Stamps, tipped-on notices and the wear of a used chart are kept where they belong to the object; nothing is redrawn.

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.