Yellowstone Panoramic Map, 1915

The story of this map

In 1915 the US Geological Survey published this panoramic view of Yellowstone, a companion to its contour maps of the park. Rather than lines of elevation, the Survey’s draughtsmen tilted the whole plateau toward the viewer and drew it in shaded relief, so that the mountains, forests, rivers and the great lake appear as they might from a balloon.

Yellowstone Lake spreads across the sheet in blue, the Yellowstone River leaves it and drops into its canyon, and the geyser basins sit in the valleys to the west. The rim of mountains around the plateau is drawn with real depth, each ridge catching light on one side and shadow on the other. Place names sit lightly on the landscape in the Survey’s neat lettering.

Views like this were made in the years when the national parks were opening to motor cars, and they helped people understand the parks as whole landscapes rather than a list of sights. A century on, the map still does that job on a wall.

We print it as a restored reproduction in our Historic Charts and Themed Maps collection. It suits a lodge, a hallway of park prints, or a child’s room, and pairs naturally with the 1912 contour map of the park. 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.

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.