Magical Maps of T.M. Fowler

Map held at the Library of Congress.

     When I was working in central West Virginia, I would often see these birds-eye view maps of small towns, like Buckhannon or Elkins. I quickly realized that there was no way the artist - the maps were signed T.M Fowler - could actually have been looking down on the city. There wasn't a hill or mountain at those angles, and he surely wasn't ascending in a balloon to get the right perspective. How did he do it?

Halliehurst and Graceland in Elkins, WV, now part of Davis & Elkins College.

The courthouse in Buckhannon, WV.

     That T.M Fowler was Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, born in 1842 in Massachusetts. He started his career as a photographer after being discharged from the U.S. Army during the Civil War in 1863, taking tin types of soldiers. After working with his uncle in Wisconsin as a photographer, Fowler started with his panoramic maps, and there seemed to be no stopping him. He moved to New Jersey, then Pennsylvania, making maps not only of those states' small towns, but towns in West Virginia, Ohio, and then Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and even Canada later in his career. 
     Fowler apparently was commissioned to do so many maps because he was a great salesman. He would convince one town that the community needed a map, and then go to a neighboring town and show them what he had produced. Not to be outdone, they would then commission one too. 

Map held at the Library of Congress.

      A town in a Fowler map is alive. Carriages and people ramble along in the streets. Trains chug along the tracks, letting out a trail of steam. A crew of kids play baseball in the park. A factory puffs out a stack of coal black smoke. Buildings are detailed and precise, and sometimes hotels, churches, and municipal buildings even get their own close-ups. 

Map held at Library of Congress

     They feel in a way like tourist maps of today - not drawn to scale and intended to give more of a feeling of a town than a realistic portrait of what could actually be found there. While many of the West Virginia towns were mapped at the apex of their history - when they really were booming with logging business and railroads - there is an almost fantasy feeling that was added, as if a bird really was flying above an idyllic American town. You can see why Fowler would be able to convince a town counsel or civic group that a map like this would attract work and business. 

Map held at the Library of Congress.

    Even though they were sometimes called "aero views," there was no aerial trickery involved to create these maps. No airplanes, no hot-air balloons. Instead, it was time, experience in the landscape, artistic ability, and an incredible attention to detail that allowed Fowler and his contemporary panoramic map-makers to create these beautiful scenes of small towns all across the United States. 

Map held at the Library of Congress.

     View the full collection of panoramic maps at the Library of Congress here.