Gillette's Map of Oneida Co. New York from actual surveys under the direction of J. H. French

Philadelphia: John H. Gillette, 1858. Wall map, 66 1/2 x 64 inches, full period colour. Expertly restored, backed with modern linen, trimmed in green cloth, on contemporary rollers. Chip at left end of upper roller. Evenly toned, some minor staining in upper portion. Very good. Scarce and quite important.

This handsome map was the largest and best for Oneida County, New York, in the nineteenth century. Each township is individually coloured, with every rural property owner located and identified by name. The route of the Erie Canal is shown, as are several railroad lines. There is a large inset street plan of Utica (17 x 27½") that shows virtually every existing building in the town. It is accompanied by an extensive business directory. More than thirty smaller insets show the towns of Rome, Knox Corners, Delta, Trenton Falls, Deerfield Corners, Remsen, Waterville, Durhamville, Vernon, Camden, New Hartford, and Clinton, among others. Seven surrounding engravings show prominent homes and buildings in the region, including the Court House in Rome, Utica City Hall, and the residences of Stanton Park in Waterville and Gen. Lyman Curtiss in Camden. Silas N. Beers and Frederick W. Beers were cousins and well-known mapmakers. Along with the young D. Jackson Lake, they had studied under J. H. French at Newtown Academy in Newtown, CT. When French left the Academy in 1855 to become head of the New York State mapping project, French enlisted his former students as associates. This project was the most ambitious and accomplished for any American state to its time. The map of Oneida County is the first joint project on which the Beers and Lake collaborated. Ristow hypothesizes that French used the Oneida project as a "training ground" for the three young talented mapmakers.

Ristow, American Maps & Mapmakers, pp. 393-94; Not in Rumsey, nor in Phillips's America.