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Massive antique wall map of California, by master mapmaker George F. Cram of Chicago.
This is one of the most detailed maps of California from the first decade of the 20th century. It was published immediately after the creation of Imperial County (from eastern San Diego County); indeed, the border between the two seems like almost an afterthought.
The map includes insets of the Bay Area and vicinity, Yosemite National Park and Yosemite State Park, San Diego, and "The Los Angeles and San Bernardino Regions".
The national forests are noted in dashed blue outlines.
George F. Cram (1842-1928), or George Franklin Cram, was an American mapmaker and businessman. During the Civil War, Cram served under General William Tecumseh Sherman and participated in his March to the Sea. His letters of that time are now important sources for historians of the Civil War. In 1867, Cram and his uncle, Rufus Blanchard, began the company known by their names in Evanston, Illinois.
Two years later, Cram became sole proprietor and the company was henceforth known as George F. Cram Co. Specializing in atlases, Cram was one of the first American companies to publish a world atlas. One of their most famous products was the Unrivaled Atlas of the World, in print from the 1880s to the 1950s.
Cram died in 1928, seven years after he had merged the business with that of a customer, E.A. Peterson. The new company still bore Cram’s name. Four years later, the Cram Company began to make globes, a branch of the business that would continue until 2012, when the company ceased to operate. For the final several decades of the company’s existence it was controlled by the Douthit family, who sold it just before the company was shuttered.
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