{"product_id":"old-map-of-west-virginia-1920-charleston-huntington-ohio-river-state-roads-electric-lines","title":"Old Map of West Virginia, 1920: Charleston, Huntington, Ohio River, State Roads, Electric Lines","description":"\u003cp\u003eWest Virginia, published in 1920 by the George F. Cram Company, presents the Mountain State at the instant America stepped from steam into the age of gasoline and electricity. Its original title—simply West Virginia—belies a composition alive with color-coded intelligence: counties ringed in green, arterial state roads traced in red and blue, and electric lines flashed in red across valleys and ridgelines. Hachured relief folds the landscape into the Alleghenies, letting the eye feel ascent and descent as routes thread through passes toward Charleston, Huntington, and Wheeling. Principal cities and county seats are crisply named, their relative stature echoed by contemporary census tallies from 1920. The result is a clear, elegant synthesis of political order, physical form, and the new connective tissues binding mines, mills, and markets across the state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProduced by the prestigious George F. Cram Company—established in 1867 and renowned for atlases that married precision with practical utility—this map embodies the firm’s early twentieth-century aesthetic. Cram’s editors distilled immense datasets into legible hierarchies, using disciplined palettes and fine linework to balance beauty with use. Trained in the traditions of American commercial cartography yet alert to modern travel, they were quick to foreground highways, state roads, and electric lines alongside political boundaries and population figures. In 1920 that editorial stance mattered: motorists pressed beyond rail corridors, interurban lines stitched together industrial towns, and state commissions rationalized road systems. Cram captured that transition with quiet authority, rendering West Virginia’s administrative grid and mountain physiography as the fixed stage upon which new mobility unfolded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopographically, the map is a masterclass in hachure technique. Short, closely set strokes articulate the Allegheny front and the corrugated ridges of the Potomac Highlands, while the broader Allegheny Plateau to the west relaxes into rounded hills and deeply incised streams. The Ohio River anchors the western edge, its bends hosting Wheeling, Parkersburg, and Huntington, each a riverport turned rail-and-road nexus. Northward, the Monongahela gathers waters through Fairmont and Morgantown; eastward, the Potomac skirts Martinsburg and the Eastern Panhandle. Central valleys carry the Elk and Kanawha past Charleston and South Charleston, while farther south the New River and Gauley carve dramatic gorges toward their confluence. These landforms do not merely decorate the scene—they dictate the alignments of roads, the siting of towns, and the very pattern of economic life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePolitically, counties are crisply partitioned in green, their seats neatly identified, giving instant comprehension of West Virginia’s administrative mosaic in 1920. Kanawha County asserts its centrality with Charleston as capital, while Ohio County clusters around venerable Wheeling at the northern bend of the river. Cabell centers on Huntington; Wood on Parkersburg; Monongalia and Harrison bracket Fairmont, Morgantown, and Clarksburg across the northern coal belt; Berkeley orients Martinsburg toward the mid-Atlantic; Raleigh signals Beckley’s ascent on the southern plateau; Hancock and Brooke squeeze into the Northern Panhandle with Weirton’s burgeoning steelworks between river and ridge; Mineral sets Keyser along the Potomac corridor. Paired with census figures of the same year, the pattern reveals an urban network swelling along energy seams and water routes, even as courthouse towns anchor the rural highlands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTransportation symbology is where the composition sparks with modernity. Major highways and state roads are cleanly segregated in red and blue, guiding the eye from the panhandles through the central highlands to border crossings with Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Red-marked electric lines—interurban railways and power-linked corridors—lace together mills, mines, and markets, especially along the Ohio River valley and across the north-central coalfields. Charleston emerges as a road hub on the Kanawha; Huntington fronts a multi-modal river gateway; Wheeling and Parkersburg marshal crossings and bridges; branch routes climb to Beckley and the southern camps. Tracked against the hachured terrain, every gradient, gap, and river bend explains a decision in engineering. The map captures the last great moment before federal highway numbering, when the state’s own system defined movement and ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCities and towns on this map\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCharleston\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHuntington\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMorgantown\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eParkersburg\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWheeling\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFairmont\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMartinsburg\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBeckley\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eClarksburg\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWeirton\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSouth Charleston\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKeyser\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotable Features \u0026amp; Landmarks\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdministrative boundaries outlined in green\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMajor highways and state roads illustrated in red and blue\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eElectric lines clearly marked in red\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCounty seats and major towns indicated with names\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelief illustrated with hachures\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistorical and design context\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublisher: George F. Cram Company (est. 1867), renowned for detailed early-20th-century cartography\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePublication year: 1920\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThemes displayed: political boundaries, physical geography, and transportation routes (highways, state roads, electric lines)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRegions covered: entire state of West Virginia with key administrative boundaries, principal cities, and counties\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDesign elements: distinctive color schemes; electric lines in red; roads in red and blue; hachures to illustrate relief\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHistorical context: depicts early 20th-century transportation and administration, accompanied by 1920 census data\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlease double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/contact-us\"\u003eget in touch\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eThe model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/all-old-vintage-antique-maps\"\u003ebest old maps\u003c\/a\u003e to see if something else catches your eye.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlease \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/contact-us\"\u003econtact me\u003c\/a\u003e to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex\/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Unique Maps Co.","offers":[{"title":"12x16in (30x40cm) \/ Map","offer_id":57828603330944,"sku":"UM00271517A","price":75.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"12x16in (30x40cm) \/ Framed map","offer_id":57828603363712,"sku":"UM00271518A","price":202.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"12x16in (30x40cm) \/ Framed canvas map","offer_id":57828603396480,"sku":"UM00271519A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3 (297x420mm) \/ Map","offer_id":57828603429248,"sku":"UM00271520A","price":75.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3 (297x420mm) \/ Framed map","offer_id":57828603462016,"sku":"UM00271521A","price":202.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3 (297x420mm) \/ Framed canvas 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