{"product_id":"how-the-public-domain-has-been-squandered-1884","title":"1884 How the Public Domain Has Been Squandered","description":"\u003cp\u003eA powerful piece of political cartography from the bitter presidential election of 1884, this dramatic Democratic campaign broadside accuses Republican Congresses of giving away an extraordinary portion of the nation's public lands to railroad corporations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted by Rand McNally in Chicago, its enormous headline announces the charge before quantifying it as 139,403,026 acres — the equivalent of 871,268 farms of 160 acres each supposedly worth more than $278 million. The broadside was produced during the contest between Democrat Grover Cleveland and Republican James G. Blaine, when railroad influence and the relationship between government and corporate power became potent campaign issues. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eThe Railroad Land Grants\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the center is a map of the United States covered by broad shaded corridors representing federal land grants made to railroads and wagon roads. These grants had been instrumental in financing America's extraordinary railroad expansion: rather than simply giving railroads land for their tracks, the government granted alternating sections along proposed routes, allowing companies to sell land to settlers and use the proceeds to finance construction. By the late nineteenth century, more than 140 million acres of public land had ultimately been transferred to railroad companies, fundamentally shaping settlement and transportation across the West. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eCartography as Political Propaganda\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat makes the broadside particularly fascinating is that the map deliberately creates a more dramatic visual impression than the actual grants warranted. The broad shaded corridors do not clearly communicate that railroads generally received alternating sections within those areas rather than every acre shown. Cornell's Persuasive Cartography collection notes that Iowa appears roughly 90 percent covered although railroad grants actually amounted to about 13 percent of the state; similar exaggerations occur elsewhere. The map therefore offers an exceptional nineteenth-century example of how technically based geographic information could be redesigned to make a political argument far more visually persuasive. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe message is reinforced by typography that is almost as important as the map itself: “HOW THE PUBLIC DOMAIN HAS BEEN SQUANDERED” dominates the sheet, followed by the accusation that the land was “GIVEN BY Republican Congresses to Railroad Corporations.” Beneath the map appears an excerpt from the Democratic Platform of 1884, demanding that unearned railroad lands be restored to the public domain and that public lands be preserved as homesteads for actual settlers. The broadside thus transforms the complicated mechanics of federal railroad subsidies into an immediately understandable argument about ordinary Americans versus powerful corporations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eA Landmark of Persuasive Cartography\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished in Chicago by Rand McNally \u0026amp; Co., the broadside brings together three particularly desirable collecting subjects: nineteenth-century American railroad expansion, western land policy, and presidential campaign propaganda. Its importance as persuasive cartography is well recognized: examples are preserved by the Library of Congress, Cornell's PJ Mode Collection, and other major map collections, while PBA noted only seven institutional examples recorded by OCLC when it cataloged the Warren Heckrotte copy in 2016. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New World Cartographic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43766194044989,"sku":"13432","price":1600.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0390\/9705\/files\/13432a_How_the_Public_Domain_Has_Been_Squandered_1884.jpg?v=1791237539","url":"https:\/\/nwcartographic.com\/products\/how-the-public-domain-has-been-squandered-1884","provider":"New World Cartographic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}