The Panoramic Maps collection is one of the most popular set of maps held in the Geography and Map Division, and the appeal of these maps is not hard to decipher. As described previously here in Worlds Revealed, the panoramic maps are stunning “bird’s-eye view” illustrations of towns and cities across the U.S. and Canada, largely created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Numerous illustrators and cartographers had a hand in producing these works of art over the course of decades, but in exploring the work of a single artist, Augustus Koch, we can appreciate Koch’s particular talents as well as celebrate the maps of this collection as touchstones of civic pride.
Augustus Koch was born in Germany in 1840 and emigrated to Wisconsin, although at what age he did is unclear. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Koch enlisted with a Wisconsin regiment and would eventually serve as an engineering officer to a black regiment of advancing Union troops in Mississippi. It was during the war that Koch first start producing maps. Following the war, he went into business illustrating incredible bird’s-eye views of towns and cities across the growing nation. While some panoramic map artists may be more well known, Koch is considered to be among the most well-traveled, producing over 100 maps in 23 states.
The Geography and Map Division holds at least 41 of Koch’s panoramic works, and choosing just a few of his stunning views to spotlight is a difficult task. His 1875 view of Virginia City, Nevada (shown below) is worth a look, with Mt. Davidson towering over the silver mining boomtown, which is shown here at the height of its population and mining productivity. It is interesting to compare this map with Grafton Taylor Brown’s 1861 view of Virginia City, which captures the town from a different angle and in the town’s early years shortly after the discovery of silver in Mt. Davidson (the Comstock Lode).
Another of Koch’s finest works is a sweeping view of the present-day independent cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth in Virginia. Produced around 1891, late in Koch’s career, the map shows the region as a bustling center of seafaring. A close-in view of the map reveals the fine details that Koch applied in his work.
Koch’s career was so wide reaching that he had the opportunity to illustrate some cities multiple times. His bird’s-eye views of Jacksonville, Florida in 1876 and 1893, for example, are valuable resources for visualizing the growth of the city over the course of 17 years.
Koch’s 1896 panoramic view of Kansas City, where he lived for most of his career, is a vibrant masterwork profiling the industrial West Bottoms area of the city. Produced just a few years before Koch’s death, the map conveys the massive scale of the city’s industrial production, from its vast stockyards to its complex array of railway lines.
Newspaper articles from the time confirm that communities were elated with Koch’s exceptional panoramas. A notice in the November 22, 1875 Daily Press and Dakotaian describes a “true to life” Koch bird’s-eye view of Yankton in present-day South Dakota and emphasizes that “the view would make an excellent advertising medium for our real estate men, and copies of it should be hung in every leading hotel in the country.” In encouraging the public to purchase copies of Koch’s view of Portland, Maine, the Portland Daily Press of July 31, 1875 states that “we desire to remind our citizens that this is one of the most valuable, reliable and desirable works of the kind ever presented to the public.”
In the September 9, 1891 edition of the Morning News of Savannah, Georgia, an article celebrates the aforementioned Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia map and notes that Koch would be publishing a view of Savannah in the near future. Promoting local investment in these kinds of projects, the article quotes from the Norfolk Landmark to state:
“The production of the splendid lithograph referred to here, of the bird’s-eye view of the city of Norfolk and vicinity, is overwhelming testimony of the fact that our people need not go to the northern cities for such work as this, as they have been doing almost uniformly. It is about time that it should be recognized that we are able to do our own work, and to those who have had the notion that it is necessary, in order, to get maps, lithographs, etc., well executed, we need only to say: Look at the production here mentioned, and for the future inquire around home before sending your money away.”
It is interesting to consider how these maps, celebrated for showcasing hometown pride and local entrepreneurialism, were created by an artist traveling from coast to coast, from Bangor to Seattle, to carefully translate these ideals into illustrations of towns and cities across the country. From the published praise from the time to the stunning detail and artistry of the maps themselves, it is clear that Augustus Koch made an important impact on the world of bird’s-eye views.
Further Reading:
- Did you know that there was another German-born cartographer working in the mid- to late-19th century by the name of Augustus Koch? This Augustus Koch left Germany following the German revolutions of 1848-1849, traveling first to England and then to Auckland, New Zealand. He gained work as a draftsman for an expedition mapping the interior of New Zealand’s North Island, and from there, began a prolific mapmaking and surveying career. The Geography and Map Division holds a facsimile of his 1868 Sketch map of Wairoa and Poverty Bay districts and a 2015 biography Augustus Koch – Mapmaker by Rolf W. Brednich.
- Read more about the aforementioned Grafton Taylor Brown, a trailblazing African American cartographer known for his bird’s-eye views, in this 2017 Worlds Revealed post.
- Explore over one thousand bird’s-eye view maps held by the Library of Congress in this fun interactive map: View from Above: Exploring the Panoramic Map Collection.