Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1875 by John B. Isler in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington DC.
It’s 1875. Here.
We can see the Caroline County landscape in 1875, thanks to an Act of Congress. The Librarian of Congress was directed to create a large, detailed map of the county, possibly in connection with the 1876 Centennial or the 1870 national census. The map shows the owner’s name for each farm house. And the locations of roads, grist mills, sawmills, stables, and churches across the entire county.
You can view digital scans of the paper map here. The set consists of 33 map segments arranged to browse the map from upper left to lower right (northwest to southeast of Caroline County.) Copies of the 1875 Isler map are in the collection of the Caroline County Library’s main branch at Denton.
The web map here lets you compare the 1875 map with modern satellite imagery and street map, like this:
The 1875 map was not drawn from accurate land surveys, so it doesn’t align perfectly with “ground truth”. But you can use the “Synchronize Scale & Location” buttons to move the three maps together or separately. You can compare different parts of the old map to what we see in Caroline County today.
Take a look at these other 1875 maps:
- 1875 Caroline County (north section) with transparency slider.
- 1875 Caroline County (south section) with transparency slider.
- 1875 Downtowns.
