[Trinidad - Surveyor General’s Department]

G.W. Bacon & Co.

1912

Composite: (Sheets 1-2) Map of the Island of Trinidad

G.W. Bacon & Co.

London

Composite Map

130

128

89,100

Trinidad

(Composite map to) (Sheets 1-2) Map of the Island of Trinidad on a scale of 1: 89,100 or 1.4 miles to 1 inch. Originally designed by Capt. Mallet, R.E. Revised & Brought up to Date from the Latest Available Official & Private Surveys.

15010.004

4

[Trinidad - Surveyor General’s Department]

G.W. Bacon & Co.

1912

Map of the Island of Trinidad on a scale of 1: 89,100 or 1.4 miles to 1 inch. Originally designed by Capt. Mallet, R.E. Revised & Brought up to Date from the Latest Available Official & Private Surveys.

British Library: Cartographic Items Maps 82540.(7.); National Library of Scotland: Map.l.12.28; OCLC: 557735638, 316560724, 61403840, 311742546; Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. 44 (1912), p. 399; The Geographical Journal, vol. 39 (1912), p. 190; The Outlook: A Weekly Review of Politics, Art, Literature, and Finance, vol. 29 (1912), pp. 104, 106.

"Lithograph with original outline hand colour, dissected and mounted upon original linen in 2 parts with each part dissected into 20 sections, folding into original green cloth covers with gilt debossed title and Art Nouveau designs to front cover Extremely rare – a stellar example of G.W. Bacon & Co.’s colossal map of Trinidad, by far and away the finest and most detailed map of the island of its era, and indeed one of the most impressive maps of any West Indian subject; the resplendently coloured work is based upon the latest topographic and cadastral surveys, and is incredible detailed, labeling settlements, political jurisdictions, infrastructure and, importantly, naming hundreds of plantations and outlining cadastral lots. This colossal, beautifully designed and resplendently coloured map is by far and away the finest and most detailed map of Trinidad made during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the island entered its first oil boom. Drafted and published by the leading London map house of G.W. Bacon & Co., the map is predicated upon the latest topographical and cadastral surveys, acquired largely from the island’s Surveyor General’s Department. The map provides a level of detail seldom seen on maps of West Indian islands, particularly of the larger isles. It labels every town and village, while the ‘Explanation’ below the title explains the symbols used to mark Railways, Carriage Roads, Projected Carriage Roads, Other Roads, Lagoons and Swamps, and the lettering used to identify Counties and Wards and their Boundaries; all these details are carefully represented on the map, with each county outlined in its own lovely hue. Offshore, there are numerous bathymetric soundings and the marking of anchorages, while the routes of the coastal steamers are shown connecting ports in the Gulf of Paria. Additionally, various submarine telegraph lines are delineated, connecting Trinidad to the outside world in real-time. The map is rich with numerous intriguing details, such as labeling of the homesteads of ‘American Settlers’ in Savanna Grande County; the locations of rural churches; a ‘Cocoa-nut Oil Manufactory’; ‘Mud Volcanoes’; details alluding to the petroleum industry, such as the locations of ‘Ashphaltic Oil’ and ‘Soil impregnated with Ashphaltum’; as well as the names of places given by Christopher Columbus, who discovered Trinidad in 1498. Most importantly, however, the map marks and names hundreds of plantations, many of which were cocoa farms producing world-famous Trinidad chocolate, as well as cocoanut groves, with many of the cadastral boundaries clearly delineated on the map, making it a highly valuable source for academic research. Curiously, the present map credits Captain Frederick Mallet, who conducted the first scientific survey of the island in 1797, resulting in his A New Map of the Island of Trinidad, made by order of His Excellency Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.B. ... Commander in Chief of the British Forces in the West Indies, by F. Mallet, Capn. of the Surveying Engineers. MDCCXCVII (London : W. Faden, 1st March, 1802). While the island was subsequently resurveyed many times, such that the present map features virtually no details of Mallet’s work, for whatever reason many of the large-format maps of the Trinidad made since his time still credit him, supposedly as he created a model for subsequent mapmakers to follow. A Note on Editions and Rarity G.W. Bacon & Co. produced the precursor to the present map of Trinidad, of roughly the same style and size, entitled Map of the Island of Trinidad divided into Counties and Wards. Compiled from the Admiralty Charts, Railway and Original Surveys, and Revised by Recent Authorities, that was first published in 1895, and again in 1898. The present map was first issued in 1912 (as present here), with a second addition printed in 1919. All issues of Bacon’s map of Trinidad are extremely rare. We can trace only 4 institutional examples of the present 1912 edition, held by the British Library; National Library of Scotland; Columbia University Library; and the Oxford University Library. We are aware of only a single other example of any of the editions as appearing on the market in the last 25 years (being another 1912 issue). Historical Context: Trinidad in the Ages of Oil and Chocolate In 1797, Trinidad was conquered by a British force under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and the island was formally ceded to Britain in 1802. While Trinidad depended upon a slave-sugar economy, this was not as well developed as on the other West Indian islands; in 1838 when slavery was fully phased out, Trinidad had only 17,439 slaves, compared to Jamaica (an island twice the size) which had 360,000. Moreover, 80% of slave holders had fewer than ten slaves each. Over the rest of the 19th century, sugar gave way to cocoa, a very profitable cash crop; Trinidad chocolate soon became world famous. The plantations were owned largely by British immigrants, but also a small number of Germans and Italians. The great majority of these estates are labeled on the present. map. Venezuelan foreman with experience in the cocoa industry were brought in to oversee operations. Supplanting labourers of African descent in the agrarian sector, the British colonial regime imported workers from India; between 1838 and 1917, 145,000 Indians immigrated to Trinidad (today people of Indian descent account for 35% of the population). While oil was first discovered in Trinidad in 1857, drilling did not become viable until 1893. By 1910, just before the present map was made, the island produced 47,000 barrels of oil a year. The petroleum industry had since grown to be the mainstay of Trinidad’s economy. Trinidad was united with Tobago in 1889, and the islands were granted an elected legislature in 1925. G.W. Bacon & Co.: Maker of Popular, Vibrant Maps of the Late Victorian Era The map house that published the present map was founded by George Washington Bacon (1830 – 1922), one of the most prolific mapmakers of the Late Victorian Era, whose ‘enthusiastic’ style of cartography perfectly matched contemporary tastes. A native of Lockport, New York, a town on the Erie Canal just east of Buffalo, in 1861 he moved to London to find has fame and fortune in the world’s greatest city. In his adopted home, Bacon established a series of businesses in a variety of fields, including selling sewing machines and importing American maps of the U.S. Civil War, but his lack of focus led him to declare bankruptcy in 1867. From then on, he realized that he should concentrate at what he did best – cartography. In 1870, he founded G.W. Bacon & Co., with well-located premises at 127 Strand. He made very good money from buying and reprinting the plates from Edward Weller’s grimly boring, but highly popular, Weekly Dispatch Atlas. However, he came to be best known for his far more attractive maps of London, as well as his incredibly elaborate, decorative wall maps. Bacon was highly successful through the 1870s and ‘80s, and in 1893 he bought the firm of the late James Wyld II (1812-87), one of the century’s greatest mapmakers, giving him a diverse and stellar stock. Bacon decided to retire at the age of 70, selling his firm to the Scottish map house of W. & A.K. Johnston in 1900. Johnston continued to use Bacon’s name for publications as late as 1956. The present map was issued under the Bacon banner at his old premises on The Strand." (Alexander Johnson and Dasa Pahor, 2022)

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Case Map

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[Trinidad - Surveyor General’s Department]; G.W. Bacon & Co.