Early Automobile Map of Philadelphia & Area
“Noll’s New Automobile Road, Driving and Bicycle Map of Philadelphia and Surrounding Country”
Folding map printed in blue and black, 1908, highlighting the roads suitable for auto traffic (“Automobile Roads Are Shown By Blue Lines”), published by E.P. Noll & Co., Philadelphia, additionally showing rail lines, turnpikes and “Common Roads” as well as churches, Quaker meeting houses, grain and saw mills and more, with vertical and horizontal folds as issued (now flattened), accompanied by the original blue card covers; some slight tears in the margins and some short separation along some folds (all now strengthened archivally on the reverse of the sheet) but otherwise in good condition
Sheet 32 1/4 x 33 1/4 inches
$175
E.P.Noll & Co. flourished between 1890 and 1910, printing and publishing maps primarily of Pennsylvania locales. As the advertising text on the back of the cover of this map notes, they were involved in coloring, mounting, framing, and selling all manner of paper supplies, as well as map publishing.
As with George Walker & Co. in Boston, and the Blanchard Press in New York City, it was the local map publishers that were the first to see the opportunity, from about 1904 on, in adapting their maps to cater to the new demand for accurate and reliable road maps from the growing number of automobile drivers.
PURCHASING INFORMATION
MORE EARLY AUTO MAPS
