Published in 1964 from 1959 mapping, the United States Geological Survey’s “Fort Moultrie” presents the barrier-island edge of coastal South Carolina with the precision and quiet elegance of mid-century American topography. At a 1:24,000 scale, the map centers on Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island, setting their ordered residential streets, beach fronts, marshes, roads, and waterways against the broad blue presence of the Atlantic Ocean. Its title invokes Fort Moultrie, the historic coastal defense site on Sullivan’s Island, lending the sheet a resonance beyond geography. This is a portrait of a coast at a transitional moment: still defined by tidal creeks, wetlands, and open shore, yet increasingly shaped by roads, neighborhoods, and the expanding recreational appeal of the Lowcountry shoreline.

The USGS mapping tradition is central to the appeal of this sheet. Founded to survey and understand the American landscape, the United States Geological Survey became renowned for transforming terrain into exacting, readable visual form. Its topographic maps are scientific instruments, but they are also cultural documents, preserving how places looked at particular moments in time. Here, contour information, hydrological detail, vegetation patterns, and built features work together to create a comprehensive view of the Charleston-area coast. The map’s disciplined cartographic language—greens for wooded and vegetated areas, blues for water, and red for developed zones—reflects the classic USGS aesthetic: restrained, functional, and deeply informative, yet visually rich when read closely.

Sullivan’s Island, one of the principal places shown, carries a layered historical importance. Guarding the entrance to Charleston Harbor, it has long been associated with military strategy, maritime movement, and coastal defense. Fort Moultrie, for which the map is named, recalls episodes from the American Revolution through the Civil War and beyond, when South Carolina’s coastline held national significance. On this map, that history is embedded within a living landscape of streets, beaches, dunes, and marshland. The island appears not as an isolated monument but as part of a dynamic coastal system, where human settlement and military heritage meet the shifting realities of tide, sand, wind, and open ocean.

To the northeast, Isle of Palms appears as a developing residential and resort landscape, its beach-lined Atlantic frontage balanced by interior roads and surrounding marshes. By the late 1950s, the island was becoming increasingly associated with coastal living, leisure, and suburban expansion, and this map captures that era of growth in fine-grained detail. The red symbols and street patterns indicate the human footprint, while the blues and greens preserve the older environmental structure of creeks, wetlands, vegetated zones, and tidal margins. Hamlin Sound and nearby waterways emphasize the watery complexity of the region, showing how communities here were—and remain—shaped by access, drainage, marsh ecology, and vulnerability to coastal change.

The “Fort Moultrie” sheet is especially evocative as a mid-twentieth-century coastal record. Its topographic character reveals elevations, landforms, vegetation, beach areas, trails, roads, marshes, and hydrological features in a way that allows the viewer to read both natural process and human occupation. Barrier islands are never static: shorelines migrate, wetlands alter, development expands, and storms periodically redraw the coast. Against that background, this 1959 survey offers a valuable snapshot of Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island, and their surrounding waters before later decades of intensified coastal development. It is a map of beaches and fortifications, neighborhoods and marshes, scientific measurement and historical memory—an understated yet richly informative view of South Carolina’s Lowcountry edge.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Isle of Palms
• Sullivan's Island
• Fort Moultrie
• Atlantic Ocean
• Hamlin Sound
• Gray Rat
• Residential areas indicated in red
• Roads and trails connecting communities
• Natural waterways and marshes
• Vegetation zones, including forests and wetlands
• Beach areas along the coastline

Historical context & cartographic details

• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map titled Fort Moultrie
• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
• Dated 1959 with a 1964 imprint
• Uses a clear mid-century USGS color scheme, including green for vegetation and blue for water bodies
• Shows elevations, landforms, vegetation, and hydrological features
• Reflects mid-20th-century growth and development along coastal South Carolina
• Documents coastal development, land use, and environmental change over time
• Sullivan’s Island is associated with Civil War-era fortifications
• The USGS is noted for detailed geographic mapping and scientific documentation of natural resources and hazards

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.