Rare Old Map of Plymouth, Massachusetts by USGS, 1939: Duxbury, Kingston & Plymouth Bay
Restaurata nel nostro laboratorio di Londra dalla mappa originale e stampata in qualità museale. Descrizione completa
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Scegli due opere idonee e ricevi il 20% di sconto su entrambe. Scegline tre e quella al prezzo più basso è in omaggio, con un risparmio massimo del 33%.
Abbina liberamente mappe standard idonee e stampe d’arte fine art. Non è richiesto alcun codice; l’offerta viene applicata automaticamente al checkout.
Sono incluse le configurazioni standard su ordinazione. Sono esclusi formati su misura, design personalizzati e lavori su commissione.
Hai bisogno di consegne a indirizzi diversi? Contattaci prima di effettuare l’ordine.
Una rara mappa antica restaurata, stampata in qualità museale. Descrizione completa
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Gift message & custom finish
If you want to add a gift message, or a finish (jigsaw, aluminium board, etc.) that is not available here, please request it in the "order note" when you check out.
Every order is custom made, so if you need the size adjusted slightly, or printed on an unusual material, just let us know. We've done thousands of custom orders over the years, so there's (almost) nothing we can't manage.
You can also contact us before you order, if you prefer!
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Titled “Plymouth,” this 1939 United States Geological Survey map presents one of Massachusetts’ most storied landscapes with the measured precision and visual...
Continua a leggereTitled “Plymouth,” this 1939 United States Geological Survey map presents one of Massachusetts’ most storied landscapes with the measured precision and visual elegance characteristic of federal topographic mapping. Drawn at a scale of 1:31,680, it captures Plymouth and its neighboring communities at a moment just before the transformations of mid-20th-century suburban growth. The map situates the historic town within a wider coastal and inland setting, from the shores of Plymouth Bay to the ponds, rivers, wooded tracts, roads, and rail lines that shaped daily movement through the region. Its distinctive USGS color palette separates land, water, and built features with crisp clarity, while contour lines give the terrain a quiet dimensionality.
The United States Geological Survey, established in 1879, became one of the defining scientific institutions of American cartography, producing maps that served explorers, engineers, planners, educators, and government agencies alike. By 1939, the USGS had refined a topographic language that was both technically rigorous and visually restrained: contours to express elevation, blues for water, greens or tints for vegetation, and carefully engraved symbols for roads, railways, buildings, and boundaries. This Plymouth sheet belongs to that mature tradition, presenting geography not as decoration but as an ordered system of observable facts. Yet its beauty lies precisely in that discipline, revealing the Massachusetts coast through a cartographic style that is lucid, balanced, and quietly authoritative.
Plymouth itself anchors the map, a place whose name carries exceptional weight in American historical memory. Long associated with early English settlement and the Pilgrims, the town is shown here not as a museum piece but as a living community embedded in a practical landscape of highways, railroads, shorelines, rivers, and surrounding villages. Nearby Duxbury, Kingston, and Carver broaden the historical frame, each connected to Plymouth through patterns of road travel, coastal access, agriculture, woodland, and regional commerce. The Jones River and the indented coastline of Plymouth Bay emphasize the area’s maritime character, while inland routes reveal how the region was increasingly tied to the transportation networks of modern Massachusetts.
The natural geography shown on the map is especially compelling. Great Herring Pond, Long Pond, and numerous smaller lakes and ponds punctuate the interior, reflecting the glacially shaped terrain of southeastern Massachusetts. Contour lines trace modest but meaningful changes in elevation, distinguishing low coastal margins from gently rolling inland ground. Forested areas and parks suggest a landscape still marked by open space, wetlands, and woodlots, even as roads and settlement patterns signal encroaching development. The juxtaposition of ponds, rivers, bays, and wooded tracts gives the map a richly varied topographic character, making it valuable not only as a record of place names and infrastructure, but also as a portrait of the region’s environmental texture.
As a document of 1939, this map captures Plymouth on the threshold of profound change. In the decades following its publication, automobile travel, residential expansion, and changing patterns of land use would reshape much of coastal Massachusetts. Highways would become more dominant, rural and wooded land would give way to subdivisions and commercial corridors, and historic towns would be drawn more tightly into the orbit of metropolitan Boston and regional tourism. This map preserves an earlier arrangement: railroads still visible as vital lines, ponds and forests holding broad space on the page, and coastal communities retaining a more compact form. It is both a scientific survey and a historical snapshot of a venerable American landscape before modern development fully altered its contours.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Plymouth
- Duxbury
- Kingston
- Carver
- Great Herring Pond
- Long Pond
- Jones River
- Plymouth Bay coastal features
- Railroads and highways
- Forested areas and parks
Historical context & cartographic details
- Published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1939.
- Historical topographical map of Plymouth, Massachusetts and the surrounding area.
- Scale: 1:31,680.
- Uses a distinctive USGS color palette to distinguish landforms, water bodies, and other features.
- Includes topographic detail such as contour lines to represent elevation and terrain.
- Shows natural features, infrastructure, populated areas, forested land, rivers, ponds, and coastal geography.
- Captures the Plymouth area before later 20th-century urban development and land-use changes.
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.
Titled “Plymouth,” this 1939 United States Geological Survey map presents one of Massachusetts’ most storied landscapes with the measured precision and visual elegance characteristic of federal topographic mapping. Drawn at a scale of 1:31,680, it captures Plymouth and its neighboring communities at a moment just before the transformations of mid-20th-century suburban growth. The map situates the historic town within a wider coastal and inland setting, from the shores of Plymouth Bay to the ponds, rivers, wooded tracts, roads, and rail lines that shaped daily movement through the region. Its distinctive USGS color palette separates land, water, and built features with crisp clarity, while contour lines give the terrain a quiet dimensionality.
The United States Geological Survey, established in 1879, became one of the defining scientific institutions of American cartography, producing maps that served explorers, engineers, planners, educators, and government agencies alike. By 1939, the USGS had refined a topographic language that was both technically rigorous and visually restrained: contours to express elevation, blues for water, greens or tints for vegetation, and carefully engraved symbols for roads, railways, buildings, and boundaries. This Plymouth sheet belongs to that mature tradition, presenting geography not as decoration but as an ordered system of observable facts. Yet its beauty lies precisely in that discipline, revealing the Massachusetts coast through a cartographic style that is lucid, balanced, and quietly authoritative.
Plymouth itself anchors the map, a place whose name carries exceptional weight in American historical memory. Long associated with early English settlement and the Pilgrims, the town is shown here not as a museum piece but as a living community embedded in a practical landscape of highways, railroads, shorelines, rivers, and surrounding villages. Nearby Duxbury, Kingston, and Carver broaden the historical frame, each connected to Plymouth through patterns of road travel, coastal access, agriculture, woodland, and regional commerce. The Jones River and the indented coastline of Plymouth Bay emphasize the area’s maritime character, while inland routes reveal how the region was increasingly tied to the transportation networks of modern Massachusetts.
The natural geography shown on the map is especially compelling. Great Herring Pond, Long Pond, and numerous smaller lakes and ponds punctuate the interior, reflecting the glacially shaped terrain of southeastern Massachusetts. Contour lines trace modest but meaningful changes in elevation, distinguishing low coastal margins from gently rolling inland ground. Forested areas and parks suggest a landscape still marked by open space, wetlands, and woodlots, even as roads and settlement patterns signal encroaching development. The juxtaposition of ponds, rivers, bays, and wooded tracts gives the map a richly varied topographic character, making it valuable not only as a record of place names and infrastructure, but also as a portrait of the region’s environmental texture.
As a document of 1939, this map captures Plymouth on the threshold of profound change. In the decades following its publication, automobile travel, residential expansion, and changing patterns of land use would reshape much of coastal Massachusetts. Highways would become more dominant, rural and wooded land would give way to subdivisions and commercial corridors, and historic towns would be drawn more tightly into the orbit of metropolitan Boston and regional tourism. This map preserves an earlier arrangement: railroads still visible as vital lines, ponds and forests holding broad space on the page, and coastal communities retaining a more compact form. It is both a scientific survey and a historical snapshot of a venerable American landscape before modern development fully altered its contours.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Plymouth
- Duxbury
- Kingston
- Carver
- Great Herring Pond
- Long Pond
- Jones River
- Plymouth Bay coastal features
- Railroads and highways
- Forested areas and parks
Historical context & cartographic details
- Published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1939.
- Historical topographical map of Plymouth, Massachusetts and the surrounding area.
- Scale: 1:31,680.
- Uses a distinctive USGS color palette to distinguish landforms, water bodies, and other features.
- Includes topographic detail such as contour lines to represent elevation and terrain.
- Shows natural features, infrastructure, populated areas, forested land, rivers, ponds, and coastal geography.
- Captures the Plymouth area before later 20th-century urban development and land-use changes.
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.
Molte delle nostre mappe e stampe d’arte vengono scelte come regali premurosi per case, uffici, studi e luoghi significativi.
Scegli un’opzione incorniciata per il regalo più semplice, pronto da appendere, oppure scegli una stampa non incorniciata se il destinatario preferisce selezionare la propria cornice.
Realizziamo gli ordini localmente in 23 paesi in tutto il mondo, così i regali possono spesso essere prodotti vicino al destinatario. Questo li aiuta ad arrivare più rapidamente, a viaggiare in maggiore sicurezza e a evitare sorprese legate a dazi doganali o di importazione.
- Possiamo consegnare direttamente al destinatario
- I pezzi incorniciati arrivano pronti da appendere
- Le stampe non incorniciate sono accuratamente imballate in un robusto tubo protettivo
- Quasi ogni ordine viene realizzato localmente, per regali più rapidi e sicuri
- Il reso entro 90 giorni dà al destinatario il tempo di decidere
Se non sei sicuro di cosa scegliere, ti invitiamo a contattarci. Possiamo aiutarti a scegliere la mappa, il formato, la finitura o l’opzione di consegna più adatti.
Most orders are made locally and delivered in around 2–3 working days, depending on the product, size and destination.
We print and frame maps and artwork in 23 countries around the world, so your order is usually made close to you or your recipient. That means faster delivery, less time in transit, and no customs or import duty surprises.
Personalised and customised pieces usually take an extra 1–2 working days, because we prepare your design and send it to you for approval before printing.
Very large framed orders can take a little longer, as they need extra care in production and delivery.
Every order is carefully packaged: unframed prints are sent in a strong protective tube, while framed pieces are securely packed with protective materials around the frame.
If you need your order by a particular date, please contact us before ordering. We’ll check the best production route and delivery option for your location.
Express delivery is available at checkout for most countries. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, US, Singapore and the UAE.
Your order is covered by our 90-day returns policy and 10-year guarantee.
Our standard frame is a gallery-style black ash hardwood frame, with a simple, modern look. It is approximately 20mm (0.8in) wide. You can also view some lovely customer photos of framed maps and art.
We use super-clear acrylic glazing, also known as Perspex or Acrylite, instead of traditional glass. It is lighter, safer, and has lower reflectivity, giving the artwork a clearer, cleaner appearance.
Six standard frame colours are available at no extra cost: black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white, and antique gold. Custom framing and mounting/matting is also available for customers looking for something more specific.
Most maps, art prints, and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced wooden box frame, and then float the piece within a wooden outer frame. The finished result is beautifully presented, with no glazing between you and the artwork.
All frames are supplied ready to hang, with either string or brackets fitted to the back. Very large frames will include heavy-duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
We can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag, and other materials.
If you would prefer to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read our size guide before ordering.
Every Unique Maps piece begins with an authentic cartographic source or an original design from our London studio.
For our historic maps, we source rare originals from libraries, archives, auction houses and private collections around the world. We carefully restore each map for print—repairing age-related damage, balancing colour and improving clarity while preserving its original detail, texture and character.
Once restored, the map is prepared for your chosen size and finish. Your piece is then printed and, where selected, framed close to its delivery destination.
Our map prints use acid-free 200gsm archival matte paper and fade-resistant pigment inks, creating a rich, non-glossy finish designed to last. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.
Canvas, cotton-rag and other specialist presentations are also available. Learn more about our materials and finishes.
Personalising your map
You can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. For personalised designs, we send a proof before printing and you can request changes before approval.
For more complex bespoke commissions, contact our design team.
Original or Aged
Choose Original for true-to-source colour, or Aged for a warmer, richer antique character created with our specialist ageing process. See examples of our Aged maps.
Restauriamo e produciamo mappe e stampe d’arte dal 1984, e garantiamo personalmente ogni pezzo.
Ogni ordine è coperto dalla nostra garanzia di 10 anni e dalla garanzia di consegna senza danni. Se il vostro pezzo arriva danneggiato, lo sostituiremo o lo rifaremo gratuitamente. Se qualsiasi altro aspetto non fosse conforme, contattate il nostro team di laboratorio e provvederemo tempestivamente a risolvere il problema.
Per tutti i dettagli, consultate la nostra politica su resi e rimborsi.
Oppure cerca qualcosa nel negozio.
