Lithograph. North oriented to upper left. Printed at bottom:
"bird's eye view of the city of seattle, wt. Puget sound. County seat of king county. 1884. "
printed in bottom border on left
"published & copyrighted 1884 by j. J. Stoner, madison, wis. "
printed in bottom on right side:
"beck & pauli, litho. Milwaukee, wis. "
bird's-eye view of seattle with elliott bay in the foreground. Includes a key at the bottom border for churches, schools, public buildings & hotels, banks and manufacturers. Of note, the territorial university, central and denny schools, the sisters academy, county court house, yeslers wharf, the ocean dock, lake union, salmon bay, and lake washington are shown. Depicts ships on elliott bay including the sidewheel steamboat olympian. The northern pacific railroad tracks and depot are shown at the lower right along with a steamer tug pulling a sailing vessel. The cascade mountains and mount baker are in the distance. Two insets in lower right show views of mount rainier and the olympic mountains from seattle. Not drawn to scale. Henry wellge (1850-1917) was a german-born mapmaker. He began drawing maps in 1878 with his first work of chilton, wisconsin. He worked jointly with j. Bach for a number of his early maps. In 1880, he worked with j. J. Stoner who published approximately forty of wellge's maps up to 1884. He later formed his own company with george norris. Over his map career, wellge drew maps for cities all over the nation in states such as wisconsin, minnesota, florida, alabama, georgia, tennessee and arkansas. In 1884, he drew 6 maps for locations in washington including this map of seattle (reps, 213-4). Seattle was first officially settled in 1851 with the arrival of arthur denny and a small number of settlers. In 1852, businessman, henry yesler, chose seattle as the site for a mill. Ten years later, seattle was chosen as the site for the territorial university. By 1870, the small village-like town numbered 1100 residents (crowley). In 1880, seattle's length was about 1. 5 miles along elliot bay and about ¾ of a mile wide. By 1879, there were about 50 houses and 200 people living next to the railroad terminus between lake union and seattle (buerge, 97). During the 1880s, seattle experienced incredible growth with a number of buildings rising up. In the first half of 1888, 800 new homes were built (buerge, 107). By this time, seattle could boast all manner of establishments including churches, schools, a hospital, saloons, brothels, dance halls, reading rooms, theaters and an orchestra. However, the city still had a poor sewage and drainage system, composed of wood and prone to flood at high tide. Source(s):
anderson, ross. "pinpoints, plots, plats and panoramas. " the seattle times. 18 sept. 2001. Accessed november 11, 2008. >
buerge, david. "seattle in the 1880s. " seattle: historical society of seattle and king county, 1986. Reps, john william. "view and viewmakers of urban america: lithographs of towns and cities in the united states and canada, notes on the artists and publishers, and a union catalog of their work, 1825-1925. " columbia: university of missouri press, 1984. Subjects (lcsh): seattle (wash. )-aerial views-maps; seattle (wash. )-pictorial works
categories: bird's eye view; pacific northwest. Date: 1884. Dimensions: height: 34 cm (13.3 in); width: 83 cm (32.6 in). Collection: University of Washington.
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