Published in 1978 from a map dated 1956, the U.S. Geological Survey’s “Dover West” captures a richly detailed mid-century view of southeastern New Hampshire, centered on Durham and the landscape around the Oyster River. At 1:24,000 scale, it belongs to the USGS’s celebrated 7.5-minute topographic series, a format prized for its precision and local intimacy. Durham appears not merely as a town, but as a textured terrain of roads, waterways, wooded tracts, and settled ground, with the University of New Hampshire anchoring its civic identity. The map presents a moment when postwar New England was balancing rural continuity with expanding infrastructure, making it both a practical survey and a historical portrait.

The cartographic language is classic USGS: disciplined, lucid, and quietly elegant. Fine contour lines describe the rise and fall of the land, revealing the modest hills, shallow valleys, and glacially shaped undulations characteristic of the New Hampshire seacoast region. Greens mark wooded and vegetated areas, while lighter tones identify water features, creating a readable yet visually appealing composition. Roads, rail lines, streams, ponds, and built-up areas are arranged with the restrained authority that made Geological Survey maps indispensable to engineers, planners, hikers, and scientists. The result is a map that transforms a familiar local landscape into a precise graphic system of elevation, movement, settlement, and natural form.

Durham is the principal presence on the map, and its setting along the Oyster River gives the sheet much of its geographic character. The river’s branching course and associated lowlands trace the historic relationship between settlement, waterpower, agriculture, and transportation in this part of New Hampshire. Mill Pond evokes the region’s older industrial and milling traditions, while nearby roads and developed areas point toward the more modern identity of Durham as a university town. The University of New Hampshire, long central to the community’s growth, helped shape the area’s mid-century expansion, drawing students, faculty, and research activity into what had once been a quieter agrarian landscape.

Beyond Durham, the map extends into the surrounding towns and rural districts of Lee, Madbury, Barrington, and Dover, each contributing to the broader fabric of the Piscataqua-region interior. NH Route 4 and NH Route 155 appear as important corridors, tying farms, village centers, campuses, and commercial areas into a connected regional network. Smaller roads and paths thread through woods and fields, suggesting a landscape still defined by local movement and traditional land use. Pudding Hill, the Otter River, and other named features add an intimate vernacular geography, preserving place names that speak to older patterns of settlement and everyday orientation.

As a historical document, “Dover West” offers a valuable baseline for understanding how this corner of New Hampshire looked in the mid-twentieth century. Its careful depiction of land cover, drainage, roads, and settlement patterns allows viewers to trace later changes in suburban growth, university expansion, transportation, and conservation. The map’s topographic detail also reveals the enduring physical framework beneath those changes: rivers still finding their courses, hills shaping routes, wetlands and ponds organizing the human footprint. Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, it reflects the agency’s mission to make the American landscape measurable, legible, and enduringly knowable—an exacting portrait of Durham and its neighboring countryside at a pivotal moment in regional development.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Durham
• Lee
• Madbury
• Barrington
• Dover
• Otter River
• Oyster River
• Pudding Hill
• Mill Pond
• NH Route 4
• NH Route 155
• Various trails and pathways

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey.
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map showing Durham, New Hampshire and its surroundings.
• Dated 1956 with a 1978 imprint.
• Features Durham, a notable college town home to the University of New Hampshire.
• Uses a clear color scheme, with greens indicating vegetation and lighter shades for water bodies.
• Contour lines show elevation changes and provide a detailed representation of the terrain.
• Depicts hills, valleys, and water features characteristic of the New England landscape.
• Offers insight into the area’s mid-20th-century geography, infrastructure, urban development, and land use.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.