|
||
|
|
|
|
The earliest map of Memphis to appear in a commercial atlas.
The maps shows streets, buildings, steam and horse railroads, public places, rivers etc. The Cotton Compress, Mammoth Cotton Press, and Mutual Storage Company Cotton Shed are all shown. The Bayou Gayoso and Quimby Bayou wind through the city, the latter around the now-closed Winchester Cemetery.
Cram was one of the pre-eminent American Mapmakers of the late 19th Century, relying upon a cerographic printing process first applied to maps by the Morse family in the late 1830s, which ultimately led to the demise of the hand-colored map.
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.
