Published in 1944 from survey data collected in 1910, the US Geological Survey’s “Granville” is a finely disciplined portrait of central Ohio at a revealing moment in its modern development. Drawn at the classic 1:62,500 scale, it balances regional breadth with close local detail, placing Granville within a wider landscape of villages, roads, railways, streams, ridges, and cultivated ground. The long interval between survey and publication gives the map a layered historical quality: it preserves the geography and infrastructure of the early twentieth century while appearing under a mid-century USGS imprint. For collectors, it offers not only a topographical record, but a measured view of an Ohio community before later suburban expansion reshaped its surroundings.

Granville itself occupies the center of the map’s interest, a town long associated with New England settlement patterns, education, and the ordered civic landscapes of the Western Reserve cultural sphere. Around it, the map names nearby places such as Hartford, Bennington, Monroe, Liberty, Jersey, St Albans, and Harrison, creating a constellation of rural settlements and township identities. Roads and railways stitch these communities together, revealing the practical geography of movement before the dominance of modern highways. The result is a map that reads almost like a social document: farms, villages, transport corridors, and waterways combine to show how daily life, commerce, and communication were organized across the Granville region in the years around 1910.

The cartographic language is unmistakably that of the US Geological Survey: precise, economical, and deeply informative. Contour lines sweep across the sheet to describe the rise and fall of the Ohio landscape, making visible the ridges, shallow valleys, stream courses, and subtle uplands that define the area around Granville. Rather than treating the countryside as empty space between towns, the map gives the land itself a strong presence. Its historical color conventions clarify water, relief, built features, and transportation routes, allowing the viewer to move between aesthetic appreciation and practical interpretation. This is topography as both science and design, a disciplined visual system that turns measured terrain into an elegant graphic composition.

The natural features shown on the map are especially important to its character. Rivers and smaller streams trace the drainage pattern of the region, explaining the placement of roads, farms, settlements, and rail lines. In central Ohio, even modest changes in elevation could determine the route of a road, the location of a mill site, or the form of agricultural land use, and the contours here make those relationships legible. The valleys and ridgelines surrounding Granville are not dramatic in an alpine sense, but they are richly expressive when read through the USGS’s contouring. Their quiet complexity gives the map depth, offering a tactile sense of the landscape beneath the names.

As a historical document, “Granville” is valuable for the way it captures an infrastructural and environmental baseline. Comparing its roads, railways, settlement names, and landforms with later maps reveals patterns of population growth, realignment of transportation routes, and changing land use around Granville and its neighboring communities. Produced by the USGS, an agency central to the systematic mapping of the United States, the sheet belongs to a larger national project of measuring, classifying, and understanding American terrain. Yet its appeal is intensely local: it preserves the contours of a particular Ohio landscape and the relationships among its towns, waterways, and routes at the threshold between rural nineteenth-century patterns and twentieth-century transformation.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Granville, Ohio
• Hartford
• Bennington
• Monroe
• Liberty
• Jersey
• St Albans
• Harrison
• Roads and railways throughout the Granville region
• Rivers and streams in the surrounding area

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey.
• Historical topographical map at a scale of 1:62,500.
• Based on data collected in 1910 and published in 1944.
• Shows Granville, Ohio and the surrounding area.
• Depicts topographical features, including elevation contours.
• Contour lines indicate ridges, valleys, and elevation changes around Granville.
• Uses a historical-style color palette to enhance visibility of landforms and terrain.
• Reflects the geographic and infrastructural layout of the area in the early 20th century.
• Provides insight into changes in land use, population growth, and infrastructure development over time.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.