Andrew Hahn’s delightful compendium of 40 rare maps of the St. Louis area is informative and an amazing record of the growth — and decline– of the region. He has put together maps from 1767 to the present, including some “fantasy maps” of how contemporary geographers envision the future infrastructure of the city. The maps show how the city developed around the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and how events such as the Cyclone of 1896 and the fire of 1846 damaged various neighborhoods.
There are many different styles of maps featured, including maps for exploration and navigation, pocket and atlas maps, development and planning maps and pictorial maps.
Two places in the history of the city are chronicled with maps:
- The 1904 World’s Fair which can be seen in modern Forest Park (and this exhibit at the local history museum further documents) and
- The construction of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, which first opened in 1859. The garden worked with Frederick Olmsted on a 1890s-era redesign and is a vibrant oasis of natural beauty in the present day.
There are maps which show the massive population movements of the city — reaching a peak population of some 850,000 in 1950, only to decline to about 280,000 residents today.
Han is a seventh generation St. Louis native, and since 2003 he has worked as director of the Campbell House Museum, an 1851 townhouse in downtown St. Louis.
Andrew Hahn’s delightful compendium of 40 rare maps of the St. Louis area is informative and an amazing record of the growth — and decline– of the region. He has put together maps from 1767 to the present, including some “fantasy maps” of how contemporary geographers envision the future infrastructure of the city. The maps show how the city developed around the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and how events such as the Cyclone of 1896 and the fire of 1846 damaged various neighborhoods.
There are many different styles of maps featured, including maps for exploration and navigation, pocket and atlas maps, development and planning maps and pictorial maps.
Two places in the history of the city are chronicled with maps:
- The 1904 World’s Fair which can be seen in modern Forest Park (and this exhibit at the local history museum further documents) and
- The construction of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, which first opened in 1859. The garden worked with Frederick Olmsted on a 1890s-era redesign and is a vibrant oasis of natural beauty in the present day.
There are maps which show the massive population movements of the city — reaching a peak population of some 850,000 in 1950, only to decline to about 280,000 residents today.
Hahn is a seventh generation St. Louis native, and since 2003 he has worked as director of the Campbell House Museum, an 1851 townhouse in downtown St. Louis.