Rare Old Map of Erie, Pennsylvania by USGS, 1957: Presque Isle State Park & Lake Erie
Restored in our London workshop from the original 1976 map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.
Restored in London • Printed and framed in the USA
Restored from the original 1976 map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
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Gift message & custom finish
If you want to add a gift message, or a finish (jigsaw, aluminium board, etc.) that is not available here, please request it in the "order note" when you check out.
Every order is custom made, so if you need the size adjusted slightly, or printed on an unusual material, just let us know. We've done thousands of custom orders over the years, so there's (almost) nothing we can't manage.
You can also contact us before you order, if you prefer!
Own a piece of history
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The original title, “Erie North,” has the crisp directness of the United States Geological Survey’s great mid-century quadrangles: a precise name for...
Continue readingThe original title, “Erie North,” has the crisp directness of the United States Geological Survey’s great mid-century quadrangles: a precise name for a richly layered portrait of place. Dated 1957 and carrying a 1976 imprint, this 1:24,000 topographical map records Erie, Pennsylvania, at a revealing moment between industrial confidence, expanding automobile-era neighborhoods, and growing awareness of the ecological value of the Lake Erie shoreline. The city is shown not as an abstraction but as a working landscape: streets, railways, harbor edges, land parcels, and shoreline forms all brought into careful relation. Its measured contours and color-coded features create a disciplined yet handsome composition, balancing scientific accuracy with the quiet visual elegance for which USGS mapping is prized.
Erie occupies the heart of the map as a major Great Lakes port, its urban grid pressed between inland neighborhoods and the broad waters of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie. The map’s detail invites close reading of the city’s mid-century structure: road corridors, railway lines, industrial zones, residential blocks, and waterfront infrastructure all speak to Erie’s long role in transportation, manufacturing, and lake commerce. Railways running through and beside the city underscore the connection between harbor, factory, and hinterland, while the road network reveals the increasing importance of regional mobility. In this sense, the map is both topography and urban history, showing how a port city organized itself around water, industry, and access.
The most dramatic natural feature is Presque Isle, the graceful sandy peninsula curling protectively around Presque Isle Bay. Today celebrated as Presque Isle State Park, it appears here as a defining geographic presence: part barrier, part refuge, part recreational landscape. Its bays—among them Mercer's Bay and Thompson Bay—add intricate shoreline detail to a map otherwise anchored by the strong geometry of Erie’s streets. The peninsula’s unusual form is central to the area’s identity, shaping currents, sheltering the harbor, and creating habitats of exceptional ecological importance. On the map, Presque Isle reads almost like a natural counterpoint to the city: fluid, low-lying, and delicately contoured against the immense plane of Lake Erie.
As a USGS production, the map reflects the agency’s commitment to systematic observation, public utility, and scientific clarity. Founded to survey and understand the nation’s lands and resources, the United States Geological Survey developed a cartographic language that became indispensable to engineers, planners, conservationists, hikers, and local historians alike. Here, that language is expressed through layered colors, fine contour lines, carefully differentiated water bodies, and precise symbols for roads, railroads, developed areas, and terrain. The 1:24,000 scale is intimate enough to identify neighborhoods and local routes, yet broad enough to reveal the larger relationship between city, bay, peninsula, and lake. It is a map made for practical use, but its clarity gives it enduring aesthetic force.
Historically, “Erie North” captures a landscape in transition. The 1957 mapping preserves development patterns before later decades of urban expansion, shoreline management, highway adjustment, and intensified environmental protection altered parts of the region. Presque Isle, in particular, would become increasingly valued not only as a recreational destination but as a fragile coastal ecosystem requiring active conservation. The map therefore offers a compelling comparison between built ambition and natural constraint: Erie’s streets and railways advance toward the water, while the lake, bay, beaches, and contours define the limits and character of settlement. For collectors, it is an evocative mid-twentieth-century record of a Great Lakes city whose identity has always depended on the meeting of land, industry, and water.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Presque Isle State Park
- Presque Isle Bay
- Lake Erie
- Mercer's Bay
- Thompson Bay
- Streets and neighborhoods within Erie
- Roads connecting points in the city and state park
- Railways running through and adjacent to Erie
- Residential, commercial, and industrial land parcels
- Potentially marked state and county boundaries
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the United States Geological Survey as a historical 1:24,000 topographical map.
- Dated 1957, with a 1976 imprint.
- The USGS is known for natural resource mapping, scientific data, and public mapping tools.
- Features clear topographical layers in multiple colors, distinguishing land use, water bodies, and urban areas.
- Includes detailed contours and elevations showing the varied landscape around Erie.
- Captures a mid-20th-century view of the area’s development patterns and natural features.
- Reflects changes that may have occurred over time through urban expansion and ecological conservation efforts.
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 18x24in (45x60cm) 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.
The original title, “Erie North,” has the crisp directness of the United States Geological Survey’s great mid-century quadrangles: a precise name for a richly layered portrait of place. Dated 1957 and carrying a 1976 imprint, this 1:24,000 topographical map records Erie, Pennsylvania, at a revealing moment between industrial confidence, expanding automobile-era neighborhoods, and growing awareness of the ecological value of the Lake Erie shoreline. The city is shown not as an abstraction but as a working landscape: streets, railways, harbor edges, land parcels, and shoreline forms all brought into careful relation. Its measured contours and color-coded features create a disciplined yet handsome composition, balancing scientific accuracy with the quiet visual elegance for which USGS mapping is prized.
Erie occupies the heart of the map as a major Great Lakes port, its urban grid pressed between inland neighborhoods and the broad waters of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie. The map’s detail invites close reading of the city’s mid-century structure: road corridors, railway lines, industrial zones, residential blocks, and waterfront infrastructure all speak to Erie’s long role in transportation, manufacturing, and lake commerce. Railways running through and beside the city underscore the connection between harbor, factory, and hinterland, while the road network reveals the increasing importance of regional mobility. In this sense, the map is both topography and urban history, showing how a port city organized itself around water, industry, and access.
The most dramatic natural feature is Presque Isle, the graceful sandy peninsula curling protectively around Presque Isle Bay. Today celebrated as Presque Isle State Park, it appears here as a defining geographic presence: part barrier, part refuge, part recreational landscape. Its bays—among them Mercer's Bay and Thompson Bay—add intricate shoreline detail to a map otherwise anchored by the strong geometry of Erie’s streets. The peninsula’s unusual form is central to the area’s identity, shaping currents, sheltering the harbor, and creating habitats of exceptional ecological importance. On the map, Presque Isle reads almost like a natural counterpoint to the city: fluid, low-lying, and delicately contoured against the immense plane of Lake Erie.
As a USGS production, the map reflects the agency’s commitment to systematic observation, public utility, and scientific clarity. Founded to survey and understand the nation’s lands and resources, the United States Geological Survey developed a cartographic language that became indispensable to engineers, planners, conservationists, hikers, and local historians alike. Here, that language is expressed through layered colors, fine contour lines, carefully differentiated water bodies, and precise symbols for roads, railroads, developed areas, and terrain. The 1:24,000 scale is intimate enough to identify neighborhoods and local routes, yet broad enough to reveal the larger relationship between city, bay, peninsula, and lake. It is a map made for practical use, but its clarity gives it enduring aesthetic force.
Historically, “Erie North” captures a landscape in transition. The 1957 mapping preserves development patterns before later decades of urban expansion, shoreline management, highway adjustment, and intensified environmental protection altered parts of the region. Presque Isle, in particular, would become increasingly valued not only as a recreational destination but as a fragile coastal ecosystem requiring active conservation. The map therefore offers a compelling comparison between built ambition and natural constraint: Erie’s streets and railways advance toward the water, while the lake, bay, beaches, and contours define the limits and character of settlement. For collectors, it is an evocative mid-twentieth-century record of a Great Lakes city whose identity has always depended on the meeting of land, industry, and water.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Presque Isle State Park
- Presque Isle Bay
- Lake Erie
- Mercer's Bay
- Thompson Bay
- Streets and neighborhoods within Erie
- Roads connecting points in the city and state park
- Railways running through and adjacent to Erie
- Residential, commercial, and industrial land parcels
- Potentially marked state and county boundaries
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the United States Geological Survey as a historical 1:24,000 topographical map.
- Dated 1957, with a 1976 imprint.
- The USGS is known for natural resource mapping, scientific data, and public mapping tools.
- Features clear topographical layers in multiple colors, distinguishing land use, water bodies, and urban areas.
- Includes detailed contours and elevations showing the varied landscape around Erie.
- Captures a mid-20th-century view of the area’s development patterns and natural features.
- Reflects changes that may have occurred over time through urban expansion and ecological conservation efforts.
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 18x24in (45x60cm) 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.
Many of our maps and art prints are chosen as thoughtful gifts for homes, offices, studies and meaningful places.
Choose a framed option for the easiest ready-to-hang gift, or choose an unframed print if the recipient may prefer to select their own frame.
We make orders locally in 23 countries around the world, so gifts can often be produced close to the recipient. This helps them arrive faster, travel more safely, and avoid customs or import duty surprises.
- We can deliver directly to the recipient
- Framed pieces arrive ready to hang
- Unframed prints are carefully packed in a strong protective tube
- Almost every order is made locally, for faster, safer gifting
- 90-day returns give the recipient time to decide
If you are not sure what to choose, please contact us. We can help you pick the right map, size, finish or delivery option.
Most orders are made locally and delivered in around 2–3 working days, depending on the product, size and destination.
We print and frame maps and artwork in 23 countries around the world, so your order is usually made close to you or your recipient. That means faster delivery, less time in transit, and no customs or import duty surprises.
Personalised and customised pieces usually take an extra 1–2 working days, because we prepare your design and send it to you for approval before printing.
Very large framed orders can take a little longer, as they need extra care in production and delivery.
Every order is carefully packaged: unframed prints are sent in a strong protective tube, while framed pieces are securely packed with protective materials around the frame.
If you need your order by a particular date, please contact us before ordering. We’ll check the best production route and delivery option for your location.
Express delivery is available at checkout for most countries. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, US, Singapore and the UAE.
Your order is covered by our 90-day returns policy and 10-year guarantee.
Our standard frame is a gallery-style black ash hardwood frame, with a simple, modern look. It is approximately 20mm (0.8in) wide. You can also view some lovely customer photos of framed maps and art.
We use super-clear acrylic glazing, also known as Perspex or Acrylite, instead of traditional glass. It is lighter, safer, and has lower reflectivity, giving the artwork a clearer, cleaner appearance.
Six standard frame colours are available at no extra cost: black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white, and antique gold. Custom framing and mounting/matting is also available for customers looking for something more specific.
Most maps, art prints, and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced wooden box frame, and then float the piece within a wooden outer frame. The finished result is beautifully presented, with no glazing between you and the artwork.
All frames are supplied ready to hang, with either string or brackets fitted to the back. Very large frames will include heavy-duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
We can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag, and other materials.
If you would prefer to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read our size guide before ordering.
Every Unique Maps piece begins with an authentic cartographic source or an original design from our London studio.
For our historic maps, we source rare originals from libraries, archives, auction houses and private collections around the world. We carefully restore each map for print—repairing age-related damage, balancing colour and improving clarity while preserving its original detail, texture and character.
Once restored, the map is prepared for your chosen size and finish. Your piece is then printed and, where selected, framed close to its delivery destination.
Our map prints use acid-free 200gsm archival matte paper and fade-resistant pigment inks, creating a rich, non-glossy finish designed to last. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.
Canvas, cotton-rag and other specialist presentations are also available. Learn more about our materials and finishes.
Personalising your map
You can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. For personalised designs, we send a proof before printing and you can request changes before approval.
For more complex bespoke commissions, contact our design team.
Original or Aged
Choose Original for true-to-source colour, or Aged for a warmer, richer antique character created with our specialist ageing process. See examples of our Aged maps.
We’ve been restoring and producing maps and art prints since 1984, and we stand behind every piece.
Every order is covered by our 10-year guarantee and damage-free delivery guarantee. If your piece arrives damaged, we’ll replace or remake it free of charge. If anything else isn’t right, contact our workshop team and we’ll put it right promptly.
See our returns and refund policy for full details.
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