Rare Old Map of Worcester, Massachusetts by USGS, 1939: Lake Quinsigamond & Blackstone River
Restored in our London workshop from the original map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.
My maps are rare, museum-grade, restored old maps sourced from libraries, auction houses and private collections across the globe. Full description
Choose your size
Choose your finish
(More info)
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!
Own a piece of history
8,000+ five-star reviews
Published in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Worcester North” presents the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, and its northern environs at...
Continue readingPublished in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Worcester North” presents the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, and its northern environs at a finely detailed 1:31,680 scale. The map captures an industrial New England city at a pivotal moment, just before the transformations of World War II and the postwar highway age reshaped its neighborhoods and approaches. Worcester appears as a dense urban center threaded by named streets, rail lines, reservoirs, parks, and surrounding uplands, while the cartographic language of the USGS—precise contours, colored natural features, and carefully differentiated built environments—gives the scene both scientific authority and period elegance. It is a portrait of a working city embedded in a landscape of hills, lakes, river corridors, and engineered water systems.
The US Geological Survey, founded in 1879, brought a new level of consistency and technical rigor to American mapping, and this sheet reflects that institutional ambition. Its topographic style is practical yet beautiful: contour lines model the rise and fall of the land, water bodies are crisply delineated, and the urban fabric is rendered with a clarity that reveals Worcester’s compact, energetic form. Roads such as Pleasant Street, Grafton Street, Lincoln Street, Park Avenue, Chandler Street, Shrewsbury Street, and Highland Street help anchor the map in the everyday life of the city, while railway lines point to the larger commercial networks that sustained Worcester’s factories, warehouses, and neighborhoods in the early twentieth century.
Worcester’s physical setting is especially compelling here, with the city shown not as an isolated grid but as a place shaped by water, elevation, and access. Lake Quinsigamond stretches along the eastern side of the urban area, a long glacial lake historically associated with recreation, rowing, and the boundary between Worcester and Shrewsbury. Indian Lake appears to the north, while the Worcester Reservoirs testify to the engineered infrastructure required by a growing city. The Blackstone River, one of the great industrial waterways of New England, and the Assabet River system connect the sheet to broader regional histories of mills, manufacturing, transport, and settlement across central Massachusetts.
The terrain around Worcester is rendered with the understated drama characteristic of USGS topographic mapping. Contours reveal the city’s hills, ridges, and valleys, including features such as Newton Hill and the broader uplands that give Worcester its distinctive topography. Green Hill Park, one of the city’s major green spaces, stands out as part of a landscape in which urban development and natural relief remain closely interwoven. The map’s detail allows the viewer to read the relationship between landform and city form: streets bending around rises, reservoirs occupying natural basins, rail corridors finding practical grades, and neighborhoods spreading across the elevated ground of central Massachusetts.
As a historical document, “Worcester North” preserves Worcester at a moment of industrial maturity, before many later layers of suburban expansion, institutional growth, and modern transportation infrastructure altered the surrounding landscape. The area associated today with Worcester State University appears within a city still defined by streetcar-era neighborhoods, rail connections, civic parks, reservoirs, and manufacturing corridors. The map invites comparison between past and present: water bodies remain familiar landmarks, but land use, road networks, and the intensity of development have changed substantially since 1939. For collectors drawn to New England history, urban geography, or the disciplined beauty of American topographic surveying, this map offers a richly textured view of Worcester’s landscape and identity.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Worcester
- Lake Quinsigamond
- Worcester Reservoirs
- Blackstone River
- Assabet River
- Pleasant Street
- Grafton Street
- Lincoln Street
- Park Avenue
- Chandler Street
- Shrewsbury Street
- Highland Street
- Worcester State University
- Green Hill Park
- Indian Lake
- Newton Hill
- Unnamed water bodies
- Major roadways and railway lines in the Worcester urban area
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the US Geological Survey, this historical topographical map shows Worcester, Massachusetts, and the surrounding area.
- Dated 1939.
- Published by the US Geological Survey, an agency established in 1879 and known for providing geological and topographical mapping of the United States.
- Drawn at a scale of 1:31,680, offering a detailed representation of local terrain and infrastructure.
- Features detailed contour lines showing elevation changes, hills, valleys, and surrounding landforms.
- Uses color to distinguish natural and built features, including forests, water bodies, and urban areas.
- Documents Worcester’s landscape and infrastructure during a period of significant industrial growth.
- Provides a historical snapshot of the area before later urban development, land-use changes, and alterations to natural features.
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.
Published in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Worcester North” presents the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, and its northern environs at a finely detailed 1:31,680 scale. The map captures an industrial New England city at a pivotal moment, just before the transformations of World War II and the postwar highway age reshaped its neighborhoods and approaches. Worcester appears as a dense urban center threaded by named streets, rail lines, reservoirs, parks, and surrounding uplands, while the cartographic language of the USGS—precise contours, colored natural features, and carefully differentiated built environments—gives the scene both scientific authority and period elegance. It is a portrait of a working city embedded in a landscape of hills, lakes, river corridors, and engineered water systems.
The US Geological Survey, founded in 1879, brought a new level of consistency and technical rigor to American mapping, and this sheet reflects that institutional ambition. Its topographic style is practical yet beautiful: contour lines model the rise and fall of the land, water bodies are crisply delineated, and the urban fabric is rendered with a clarity that reveals Worcester’s compact, energetic form. Roads such as Pleasant Street, Grafton Street, Lincoln Street, Park Avenue, Chandler Street, Shrewsbury Street, and Highland Street help anchor the map in the everyday life of the city, while railway lines point to the larger commercial networks that sustained Worcester’s factories, warehouses, and neighborhoods in the early twentieth century.
Worcester’s physical setting is especially compelling here, with the city shown not as an isolated grid but as a place shaped by water, elevation, and access. Lake Quinsigamond stretches along the eastern side of the urban area, a long glacial lake historically associated with recreation, rowing, and the boundary between Worcester and Shrewsbury. Indian Lake appears to the north, while the Worcester Reservoirs testify to the engineered infrastructure required by a growing city. The Blackstone River, one of the great industrial waterways of New England, and the Assabet River system connect the sheet to broader regional histories of mills, manufacturing, transport, and settlement across central Massachusetts.
The terrain around Worcester is rendered with the understated drama characteristic of USGS topographic mapping. Contours reveal the city’s hills, ridges, and valleys, including features such as Newton Hill and the broader uplands that give Worcester its distinctive topography. Green Hill Park, one of the city’s major green spaces, stands out as part of a landscape in which urban development and natural relief remain closely interwoven. The map’s detail allows the viewer to read the relationship between landform and city form: streets bending around rises, reservoirs occupying natural basins, rail corridors finding practical grades, and neighborhoods spreading across the elevated ground of central Massachusetts.
As a historical document, “Worcester North” preserves Worcester at a moment of industrial maturity, before many later layers of suburban expansion, institutional growth, and modern transportation infrastructure altered the surrounding landscape. The area associated today with Worcester State University appears within a city still defined by streetcar-era neighborhoods, rail connections, civic parks, reservoirs, and manufacturing corridors. The map invites comparison between past and present: water bodies remain familiar landmarks, but land use, road networks, and the intensity of development have changed substantially since 1939. For collectors drawn to New England history, urban geography, or the disciplined beauty of American topographic surveying, this map offers a richly textured view of Worcester’s landscape and identity.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Worcester
- Lake Quinsigamond
- Worcester Reservoirs
- Blackstone River
- Assabet River
- Pleasant Street
- Grafton Street
- Lincoln Street
- Park Avenue
- Chandler Street
- Shrewsbury Street
- Highland Street
- Worcester State University
- Green Hill Park
- Indian Lake
- Newton Hill
- Unnamed water bodies
- Major roadways and railway lines in the Worcester urban area
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the US Geological Survey, this historical topographical map shows Worcester, Massachusetts, and the surrounding area.
- Dated 1939.
- Published by the US Geological Survey, an agency established in 1879 and known for providing geological and topographical mapping of the United States.
- Drawn at a scale of 1:31,680, offering a detailed representation of local terrain and infrastructure.
- Features detailed contour lines showing elevation changes, hills, valleys, and surrounding landforms.
- Uses color to distinguish natural and built features, including forests, water bodies, and urban areas.
- Documents Worcester’s landscape and infrastructure during a period of significant industrial growth.
- Provides a historical snapshot of the area before later urban development, land-use changes, and alterations to natural features.
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.
Many of our maps and art prints are chosen as thoughtful gifts for homes, offices, studies and meaningful places.
Choose a framed option for the easiest ready-to-hang gift, or choose an unframed print if the recipient may prefer to select their own frame.
We make orders locally in 23 countries around the world, so gifts can often be produced close to the recipient. This helps them arrive faster, travel more safely, and avoid customs or import duty surprises.
- We can deliver directly to the recipient
- Framed pieces arrive ready to hang
- Unframed prints are carefully packed in a strong protective tube
- Almost every order is made locally, for faster, safer gifting
- 90-day returns give the recipient time to decide
If you are not sure what to choose, please contact us. We can help you pick the right map, size, finish or delivery option.
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.
We work with interior designers, hospitality businesses, property professionals, offices and corporate buyers on individual pieces and larger coordinated projects.
This map can be adapted for a particular wall, room or project, and our workshop can help coordinate the dimensions, material and framing before production.
- Exact, oversized and made-to-measure dimensions
- Custom framing, mounting and alternative materials
- Coordinated pieces for several rooms or locations
- Map personalisation, to mark important locations or add extra details
- Map and framing guidance from our workshop
- Local production for projects around the world
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.
We’ve been restoring and producing maps and art prints since 1984, and we stand behind every piece.
Every order is covered by our 10-year guarantee and damage-free delivery guarantee. If your piece arrives damaged, we’ll replace or remake it free of charge. If anything else isn’t right, contact our workshop team and we’ll put it right promptly.
See our returns and refund policy for full details.
Or try searching for something!
