Henry F. Walling and the Mapping of New England’s Towns, 1849–1857


teriously cites “surveys and plans made by Ansel.” Though not acknowledged on the map itself, his map of Cam- bridge (1854) makes use of subdivision plans that would have been available at the city’s Registry of Deeds, as well as an 1831 plan of Mt. Auburn Cemetery by Alexander Wadsworth.16


A puzzle


As discussed earlier, several of the town maps are executed at an unusually large scale, sufficient to depict building footprints and in some cases property lines. Further, more than half of the smaller-scale maps include inset plans of population centers executed at a similarly large scale. These present something of a puzzle: it is difficult to see how, without access to municipal “master maps” docu- menting lot lines and building footprints, Walling could have gathered the necessary data in a timely and cost-ef- fective manner. Yet such master maps did not become systematically available until the “fire insurance” atlases of urban areas proliferated in the last quarter of the 19th century.


COMPETITION, COMPILATION AND BUSINESS STRATEGY Walling’s apparent failure to comment in print on busi- ness matters during this period limits us to informed speculation about his business strategy. With that caveat in mind, it does appear that his “synthetic” approach to map making—compiling his own “original surveys” with the best available data from government and other sourc- es—would have been a sensible response to a difficult competitive environment. The finances of producing a town map were unprom-


ising. To begin with, the pool of potential customers was usually small, restricted to local land- and business own- ers. Yet it was not realistic to compensate for low sales vol- umes by setting prices high, as most prospective purchas- ers would have considered a town map a luxury rather than a necessity. Given the substantial fixed costs of pro- ducing a map—whether 1 or 1000 copies were sold—the prospect must have been daunting. This may explain why Walling never published his own town maps, preferring instead to shift the financial risk to others. It may also explain why from 1852 on almost all his town maps were published by the towns themselves, which felt the profit motive less keenly and at any rate needed the maps for administrative purposes.


Walling also faced a “time-to-market” challenge, for


in the early 1850s several of his competitors were rush- ing to issue their own maps of New England towns. With most consumers likely to buy at most one map of a given locality, whoever was first to bring a map to market had a powerful advantage. The greatest threat in this regard was Philadelphia-based Richard Clark, who between 1851 and 1855 published at least 33 maps of New Eng- land towns, including no fewer than 18 in Massachu- setts. In at least one case Walling missed his chance: his 1851 map of New Bedford, Mass. lagged one issued by J.C. Sidney in 1850. In a likely indicator of their relative success, numerous examples of the Sidney are known to survive, while the Walling map is now almost vanish- ingly rare.17 Perhaps Walling could have brought maps to market


quickly and inexpensively by producing derivative work, a strategy long in vogue among American and European map makers. The simplest approach would have been to copy the best existing town maps—in particular, those filed with the Massachusetts Secretary of State in the early 1830s—and “dress them up” with land owners’ names, decorative vignettes, &c. Even if he had been comfortable doing so, however, blocking such a plan were the 90 or so maps of the most populous Massachusetts towns already published in the 1830s. To compete with these, new maps would have to be interestingly different—more current, more accurate, more complete, and preferably more deco- rative. In fact his career trajectory indicates that he would


not have felt comfortable producing “hack” work. Even in 1854, when Walling was just 29, Simeon Borden and other leading civil engineers felt confident enough in his skills and integrity to recommend him for the position of Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Map.18


Later


his work brought him into the embrace of the scientific community, and he became an acknowledged leader in applying advanced methods and tools to the mapping of the United States. Whether Walling realized it or not, his synthetic ap-


proach to mapmaking was an elegant resolution of these competing considerations. Use of the best existing mate- rial would have reduced time in the field and kept costs down, while the cost-effective odometer road surveys pro- vided an important corrective for earlier inaccuracies and ensured that the maps were current and comprehensive. Finally, the addition of decorative elements would have


The Portolan | Spring 2008 | 31


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