{"id":1453,"date":"2025-08-26T11:26:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.old-maps.com\/blog\/?p=1453"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:22:49","slug":"plymouth-county-ma-1857-wall-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.old-maps.com\/blog\/plymouth-county-ma-1857-wall-map\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW – Plymouth County MA 1857 Town Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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August, 2025, we have “chopped up” the magnificent 1857 wall map of Plymouth County Massachusetts<\/a> into 80+ separate Town Maps, villages, pictures, and tables.

The original map is bedsheet sized, 5 foot square.


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But first, using Photoshop, we improved our scan of the original wall map

Here are before and after images.

This improvement makes it possible for us to offer large prints <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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After<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s the lower left corner of the 1857 map. The map “proper” is to the right, the colored areas, showing the Towns of Mattapoisett<\/a>, Marion<\/a> etc.

On the left are the village insets. I have enlarged Sippican and Old Landing in this image. There are 47 such village maps.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The 19th century map makers would make village inset maps where there was a good population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Sippican <\/a>and Old Landing<\/a> merited inset maps is a testament to their prosperity.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The 1857 county wall map was a business venture. The wall maps were sold for about $5.00 in 1857 dollars.

A main selling point would be that “your house is on this fine wall map…”
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In the Town of Bridgewater,<\/a> then and now, is a village called Scotland. It’s on busy Route 104.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The village inset map of Scotland<\/a>, Bridgewater, Mass in 1857<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Where is Joppa<\/a> ?


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This busy 1857 village is now called Elmwood, on Route 18 in the Town of East Bridgewater<\/a>
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The center of Joppa (now Elmwood)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Daniel Webster’s house<\/a> in Marshfield is pictured on the 1857 map.

This house burned 20 years later. The site has a newer house today.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Webster house is located on the map. as is the Winslow Burying Ground where Webster was interred after his 1852 death.
Not sure what “D. Webster’s Observatory” means…
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Our Town of Marshfield<\/a> print is pictured here. The Webster house is beneath the “17”.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“Landing of the Pilgrims<\/a> 1620″ is one of the 13 pictures on the 1857 map.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“Pilgrim Rock” on the 1857 map…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we call it “Plymouth Rock”


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We made a special “Central Plymouth<\/a>” print of the downtown area of Plymouth.
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Look at all the wharves in use in 1857.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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One of our 47 village prints has Plymouth Village and the business directories.

We chopped it out of the wall map and added some margin to make a square print.

See below
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We created a 2nd version of Plymouth Village<\/a> omitting the Business Directories so the map itself is larger.
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We added a Wharves Inset<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An odometer factory is on the Middleborough<\/a> map.

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A wheeled odometer was used to measure distances for the Plymouth County map.

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