Driving and Cycling Road Map of the Bermuda Islands

New York, 1911. Very good.. Folding lithograph map, handcolored, 11 x 27.5 inches. Original printed pictorial boards with cloth spine. Light wear and chipping to spine, light wear to boards. Advertisements on front pastedown. Light wear to map at some folds, but generally clean and fresh. An attractive map of Bermuda, showing major driving and cycling routes on the island at the beginning of the 20th century. First published in 1892, this is the fourth edition, revised and corrected. A review in Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine published in its October 1892 issue, reads:

"Evidently the 'cycler has invaded the Bermudas. J.M. Farnsworth, a well-known 'cycler, while taking a few weeks of rest at these islands, seems to have obtained the same by making a very unique driver's and 'cycler's map of these islands. Mr. Farnsworth is evidently an amateur at cartographic work, but he has nevertheless produced a much cleverer piece of work than is turned out by many of the professionals engaged in the same line."

Although the reviewer states that Farnsworth was well known, we find no other information on his cycling activities. As the piece indicates, a key at the lower left of the map indicates whether roads are best, good or poor, and whether the grade is ordinary, steep, or "very steep grade, dangerous for wheeling." An inset map of Hamilton, the Bermudan capital, occupies the center of the sheet. Rare in any edition -- we locate two copies of the 1900 second edition in OCLC and just one copy of the present 1911 edition, at Yale.