Published in 1961 from 1959 survey work, the US Geological Survey’s “Birmingham North” presents the northern half of Alabama’s great industrial city at a moment of remarkable transition. At the precise 1:24,000 scale, Birmingham appears not as an abstraction but as a dense, readable landscape of streets, rail lines, neighborhoods, waterways, and rising ground. The map captures the city’s built fabric spreading across Jefferson County, with Southside, North Birmingham, Woodlawn, Avondale, East Lake, Ensley, Smithfield, and Tarrant set within a terrain shaped by ridges and valleys. Its rich color scheme—pink for urbanized districts, green for wooded areas, fine brown contour lines for elevation—makes the contrast between civic growth and Appalachian foothill topography immediately compelling.

The US Geological Survey brought to this map the disciplined clarity that made its quadrangles indispensable to engineers, planners, geologists, and travelers. Founded in the aftermath of the great western surveys, the USGS developed a cartographic language that balanced scientific measurement with visual elegance: contours, benchmarks, drainage, roads, railroads, public buildings, and land cover all coexist in an ordered hierarchy. Here that method reveals Birmingham with unusual intimacy. The city’s gridded neighborhoods, industrial corridors, hospitals, parks, water-treatment facilities, and transportation routes are set against the natural structure of the land. Rather than merely naming places, the map explains why they developed where they did—along valleys, beside railroads, near ore-bearing ridges, and around the practical demands of water, grade, and access.

Red Mountain is one of the defining presences on the sheet, both visually and historically. Its long ridge, rendered through closely spaced contour lines, marks the southern edge of the urban basin and recalls the iron ore deposits that helped make Birmingham the “Pittsburgh of the South.” North of it, the city’s industrial and residential districts spread through the lower ground, while Shades Valley and Mountain Brook indicate the more wooded, undulating terrain beyond. Valley Creek and smaller streams thread through the urban landscape, linking topography to drainage and settlement. The map’s careful depiction of hilly ground, parks, lakes, and wooded tracts gives Birmingham a layered character: not only a city of furnaces and rail yards, but a city embedded in a rugged southern landscape.

Transportation is a central story in this late-1950s view of Birmingham. Railroads cross and converge in multiple directions, evidence of the city’s coal, iron, steel, and manufacturing economy, while major highways and the emerging interstate corridors of I-20, I-59, and I-65 foreshadow the automobile-centered redevelopment that would reshape the metropolitan area. The vicinity of the present Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport appears as a major eastern transportation landmark, linking the city to national air routes. Streets and local roads knit together neighborhoods such as Five Points South, Avondale, East Lake, Corktown, and North Birmingham, while institutional landmarks—including the medical district around what would become the University of Alabama at Birmingham—hint at the city’s evolving post-industrial future.

As a historical document, “Birmingham North” is especially evocative because it records the city just before the dramatic transformations of the 1960s. The map predates much of the interstate construction, urban renewal, hospital expansion, and civic redevelopment that altered Birmingham’s neighborhoods and commercial core. It also belongs to the era in which Birmingham stood at the center of national attention during the Civil Rights Movement, making its streets and districts historically resonant beyond their cartographic form. Yet the sheet remains calm and empirical, translating a complex city into contours, symbols, colors, and names. In doing so, it preserves a richly detailed portrait of Birmingham’s geography, infrastructure, and urban life at a pivotal mid-century moment.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Birmingham
• Jefferson County
• Red Mountain
• Southside
• North Birmingham
• Valley Creek
• Five Points South
• Woodlawn
• Avondale
• East Lake
• Mountain Brook
• Ensley
• Tarrant
• Smithfield
• Corktown
• Shades Valley
• Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport
• Interstates 20, 65, and 59
• Various railroads
• P. H. (Peoples Hospital)
• Parks
• Lakes
• Streams
• Highways and local roads
• University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) vicinity
• Water treatment facilities
• Birmingham Zoo area

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey (USGS).
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map of Birmingham, Alabama, and the surrounding area.
• Dated 1959 with a 1961 imprint.
• Shows Birmingham’s populated area and surrounding residential zones, parks, waterways, and mountainous terrain.
• Uses a rich color palette, with green indicating forested areas and shades of pink marking urban regions.
• Illustrates elevation changes and terrain contours, including the hilly landscape characteristic of Birmingham’s geography.
• Provides insight into Birmingham’s geographical and infrastructural layout in the late 1950s.
• Reflects urban development and land-use patterns connected to Birmingham’s industrial history and later redevelopment.

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.