Cincinnati, Jean Frederic Wentzel’s 1867 color lithograph, captures the Queen City at the instant it announces itself as a modern metropolis. Issued from both Paris and Wissembourg, the work showcases the new John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge striding across the Ohio River to Covington, a gleaming emblem of postwar confidence and engineering daring. The river teems with steamboats, their movement animating a waterfront crowded with commerce, while the surrounding hills frame a dense, rectilinear city center. This is an especially notable city map because it distills a transformative moment: Cincinnati emerging from the Civil War as a connected, outward-looking hub, its civic order and industrial vigor rendered in vibrant chromolithographic tones that make the topography, streets, and skyline read with striking clarity.

The lithograph orchestrates Cincinnati’s ordered grid with a cartographer’s precision and an artist’s eye. Front and Third streets anchor the riverfront bustle, stepping inland to Fourth and Fifth where mercantile and civic life concentrate. North–south arteries—Broadway, Main, Vine, Race, Elm, and Plum—lock the fabric into a coherent plan, while Canal Street traces the historic margin of the Miami and Erie Canal, long a commercial lifeline and a social boundary. Pike and Myrtle add local texture to the matrix. The surrounding hills, richly vegetated, enfold the urban basin, highlighting the city’s amphitheater-like setting along the Ohio. Across the water, Covington’s tidy grid echoes Cincinnati’s confidence, underscoring a cross-river metropolis whose symmetry and scale the map conveys with quietly persuasive authority.

Transportation modernity is the narrative thread that binds this scene. The Roebling Suspension Bridge—prototype to the later Brooklyn Bridge—signals an audacious leap in mobility, knitting Ohio and Kentucky into a single economic organism. On the river, side-wheelers and stern-wheelers crowd the current, visual shorthand for Cincinnati’s role as a gateway to the interior and a clearinghouse for Midwestern goods. The city’s streetcar era, inaugurated in 1859, is legible in the disciplined corridors of Main, Vine, and Broadway, where the rectilinear plan anticipates efficient movement of people and freight. As infrastructure converges—bridge, river, and street—the map crystallizes a new urban tempo, one driven by schedules, spans, and steel, and it does so in a way few city views of the period manage.

Commerce and community both leave their imprint in the blocks between Fourth and Fifth streets and along the river landing, where warehouses, countinghouses, and hotels once pulsed with activity. Canal Street hints at the lively districts north of the waterway—later famed as Over-the-Rhine—whose breweries, shops, and dense tenements fed the city’s manufacturing and cultural life. To the west and south, the grid dissolves into the steep, leafy hills that gave Cincinnati its dramatic vistas and its intimate neighborhoods. This is what makes the map an exceptional city document: it balances monumental infrastructure with everyday routes and locales, reading as both a portrait of power and a human-scaled guide to streets where business, transit, and sociability intertwined.

Jean Frederic Wentzel’s decision to issue this view from Paris as well as Wissembourg speaks to a shrewd internationalism. With the Paris World’s Fair on the horizon, he recognized European appetite for images of American modernity and selected Cincinnati—then a manufacturing colossus—as an exemplar. His chromolithographic craft heightens legibility and allure: the Ohio River’s cool blues, the bridge’s delicate catenaries, the warm masonry of riverfront blocks, and the deep greens of encircling hills together create an image that is documentary and celebratory at once. The result is a map that bridges continents as deftly as the Roebling bridges shores, preserving a pivotal, post-Civil War city at the precise moment it took its place on the world stage.

Streets and roads on this map

• Broadway
• Canal Street
• Elm Street
• Fifth Street
• Fourth Street
• Front Street
• Main Street
• Myrtle Avenue
• Pike Street
• Plum Street
• Race Street
• Third Street
• Vine Street

Notable Features & Landmarks

• John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge
• Ohio River
• Various steamboats
• Cityscape of Cincinnati with numerous buildings and structures
• The surrounding hills and vegetation

Historical and design context

• Date of creation: 1867, shortly after the Civil War
• Themes: Highlights the city’s modernity following completion of the suspension bridge
• Design/style: City antique color lithograph using vibrant colors to showcase the cityscape and surrounding landscape
• Historical significance: Marks Cincinnati’s evolution into a world-class city and major manufacturing hub; notes development of streetcars in 1859 and other urban infrastructure
• Publisher/context: Issued in Paris and Wissembourg by Wentzel; expansion to a Paris office around the Paris World’s Fair to reach broader audiences

Please 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.

This 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.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This 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.

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.

Many of our maps and art prints are chosen as thoughtful gifts for homes, offices, studies and meaningful places.

Choose a framed option for the easiest ready-to-hang gift, or choose an unframed print if the recipient may prefer to select their own frame.

We make orders locally in 23 countries around the world, so gifts can often be produced close to the recipient. This helps them arrive faster, travel more safely, and avoid customs or import duty surprises.

• We can deliver directly to the recipient
• Framed pieces arrive ready to hang
• Unframed prints are carefully packed in a strong protective tube
• Almost every order is made locally, for faster, safer gifting
• 90-day returns give the recipient time to decide

If you are not sure what to choose, please contact us. We can help you pick the right map, size, finish or delivery option.

Most orders are made locally and delivered in around 2–3 working days, depending on the product, size and destination.

We print and frame maps and artwork in 23 countries around the world, so your order is usually made close to you or your recipient. That means faster delivery, less time in transit, and no customs or import duty surprises.

Personalised and customised pieces usually take an extra 1–2 working days, because we prepare your design and send it to you for approval before printing.

Very large framed orders can take a little longer, as they need extra care in production and delivery.

Every order is carefully packaged: unframed prints are sent in a strong protective tube, while framed pieces are securely packed with protective materials around the frame.

If you need your order by a particular date, please contact us before ordering. We’ll check the best production route and delivery option for your location.

Express delivery is available at checkout for most countries. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, US, Singapore and the UAE.

Your order is covered by our 90-day returns policy and 5-year guarantee.

Read our full delivery and local production guide

My standard frame is a gallery style black ash hardwood frame. It is simple and quite modern looking. My standard frame is around 20mm (0.8in) wide.

I use super-clear acrylic (perspex/acrylite) for the frame glass. It's lighter and safer than glass - and it looks better, as the reflectivity is lower.

Six standard frame colours are available for free (black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white and antique gold). Custom framing and mounting/matting is available if you're looking for something else.

Most maps, art and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte (not shiny) cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced box wood frame, and then 'float' the piece within a wood frame. The end result is quite beautiful, and there's no glazing to get in the way.

All frames are provided "ready to hang", with either a string or brackets on the back. Very large frames will have heavy duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

See some examples of my framed maps and framed canvas maps.

Alternatively, I can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag and other materials.

If you want to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read my size guide first.

My maps are extremely high quality reproductions of original maps.

I source original, rare maps from libraries, auction houses and private collections around the world, restore them at my London workshop, and then use specialist giclée inks and printers to create beautiful maps that look even better than the original.

My maps are printed on acid-free archival matte (not glossy) paper that feels very high quality and almost like card. In technical terms the paper weight/thickness is 10mil/200gsm. It's perfect for framing.

I print with Epson ultrachrome giclée UV fade resistant pigment inks - some of the best inks you can find.

I can also make maps on canvas, cotton rag and other exotic materials.

Learn more about The Unique Maps Co.

Map personalisation

If you're looking for the perfect anniversary or housewarming gift, I can personalise your map to make it truly unique. For example, I can add a short message, or highlight an important location, or add your family's coat of arms.

The options are almost infinite. Please see my map personalisation page for some wonderful examples of what's possible.

To order a personalised map, select "personalise your map" before adding it to your basket.

Get in touch if you're looking for more complex customisations and personalisations.

Map ageing

I have been asked hundreds of times over the years by customers if they could buy a map that looks even older.

Well, now you can, by selecting Aged before you add a map to your basket.

All the product photos you see on this page show the map in its Original form. This is what the map looks like today.

If you select Aged, I will age your map by hand, using a special and unique process developed through years of studying old maps, talking to researchers to understand the chemistry of aging paper, and of course... lots of practice!

If you're unsure, stick to the Original colour of the map. If you want something a bit darker and older looking, go for Aged.

See some amazing examples of Aged maps.

Se non sei soddisfatto del tuo ordine per qualsiasi motivo, contattami per un rimborso senza problemi. Si prega di consultare la nostra politica di reso e rimborso per ulteriori informazioni.

Sono molto sicuro che ti piacerà la tua mappa restaurata o la stampa d'arte. Lo faccio dal 1984. Sono un venditore Etsy a 5 stelle. Ho venduto decine di migliaia di mappe e stampe d'arte e ho oltre 5.000 recensioni reali a 5 stelle.

Utilizzo un processo unico per restaurare mappe e opere d'arte che richiede molto tempo e lavoro. Trovare le mappe e le illustrazioni originali può richiedere mesi. Utilizzo tecnologia all'avanguardia e incredibilmente costosa per scannerizzare e restaurarle. Di conseguenza, garantisco che le mie mappe e stampe d'arte siano superiori alle altre - ecco perché posso offrire un rimborso senza problemi.

Quasi tutte le mie mappe e stampe d'arte sembrano fantastiche a grandi dimensioni (200 cm, 6,5 piedi+) e posso anche incorniciarle e consegnarle a te, tramite un corriere speciale per oggetti di grandi dimensioni. Contattami per discutere delle tue esigenze specifiche.