Map of the City of Washington - Simple map of Washington, D.C. showing the locations of common transmittable diseases.

William T.O. Bruff

Published by c. 1880, 1880

About this Item

Washington D.C. enjoyed a period of relatively uninterrupted growth in the years following the American Civil War, but by 1870 the city still lacked basic sanitation facilities or paved roads. The combination of poor hygiene and overcrowding was a recipe for a public health disaster, and a series of political reorganizations in the 1870's aimed to modernize the city and its infrastructure. The resulting Board of Commissioners, established in 1878, would have heavily relied on government maps such as this one, which shows the known locations of five diseases that commonly afflicted urban areas in the late 19th century; typhoid fever, malarial fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and diarrheal diseases. Though there are certainly visible pockets of disease concentration in the city, the widespread coverage of the symbols reflects the scale of the problem faced by the public health officials. Sheet Width (in) 24.5 Sheet Height (in) 17.25 Condition Description Moderate discoloration and creasing along fold lines, most evidently along two vertical folds in the center and right side of the page. A few small separations along the outer edges, but overall the map remains in good to very good condition. Seller Inventory # 1800

Bibliographic Details

Title: Map of the City of Washington - Simple map ...

Publisher: c. 1880

Publication Date: 1880

Condition: Very Good