Rare Old Map of Charlottesville, Virginia by USGS, 1939: University of Virginia, Monticello & Rivanna River
Restored in our London workshop from the original map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
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Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.
Restored in London • Printed and framed in Canada
My maps are rare, museum-grade, restored old maps sourced from libraries, auction houses and private collections across the globe. Full description
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Published in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Charlottesville Quadrangle” presents a finely ordered topographic portrait of central Virginia at a...
Continue readingPublished in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Charlottesville Quadrangle” presents a finely ordered topographic portrait of central Virginia at a moment when the region balanced rural landscapes, historic estates, and expanding urban life. The map centers on Charlottesville, a city already defined by its association with the University of Virginia and by its proximity to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s celebrated mountaintop home. In the disciplined USGS style, contour lines, color distinctions, waterways, roads, and settlement patterns combine to create a richly legible view of Albemarle County’s terrain. More than a practical survey, it captures the geography of a culturally layered landscape in 1939, where academic, agricultural, presidential, and transportation histories converged.
The US Geological Survey brought to this map the standardized precision that made its quadrangles indispensable to engineers, planners, hikers, landowners, and government agencies throughout the twentieth century. Its cartography is restrained yet deeply expressive: elevation is communicated through close-set contour lines, while valleys, ridges, streams, roads, and built-up areas emerge with quiet authority. Around Charlottesville, the viewer can trace the physical logic of the place—the way roads follow gentler grades, neighborhoods gather near rail and river corridors, and hills shape the outward growth of the city. The result is a classic early twentieth-century American topographic map, scientific in purpose but unexpectedly elegant in its composition and detail.
Charlottesville itself appears as the cultural and urban heart of the sheet, with the University of Virginia standing as one of its defining landmarks. Founded by Thomas Jefferson and arranged around the celebrated Academical Village, the university had by 1939 become both an architectural monument and a major force in the city’s development. Nearby, Monticello occupies its commanding position on the high ground, a reminder that this landscape is inseparable from the early republic and Jefferson’s vision of education, agriculture, and civic life. The map’s roads, contours, and settlement symbols allow these historic sites to be understood not as isolated monuments, but as parts of a broader Piedmont landscape.
The Rivanna River and its tributaries give the quadrangle much of its natural structure, cutting through the terrain and linking mill sites, farms, roads, and settlements. Woolen Mills, east of downtown Charlottesville, evokes the industrial history of the river corridor, where water power and transportation helped shape local enterprise. Places such as Ivy, Pantops, Earlysville, and Ruckersville mark the surrounding rural network of crossroads, farms, and small communities. Carter Mountain and Smith Mountain rise as prominent topographic features, their slopes rendered through the measured rhythm of contour lines. The map also hints at later transformations, including landscapes that would become associated with modern residential and recreational development around Lake Monticello.
As a historical document, this 1939 Charlottesville map preserves the region just before the dramatic changes of the mid-twentieth century accelerated suburban growth, highway expansion, and shifting land use. Shenandoah National Park, newly established in the 1930s to the west of Charlottesville, forms part of the broader regional context in which Virginians and visitors increasingly understood the Blue Ridge and Piedmont as landscapes for conservation, travel, and recreation. Within the quadrangle, however, the older patterns remain vivid: county roads, paths, river crossings, hill farms, academic precincts, and historic estates. It is a map of transition, showing Charlottesville poised between Jeffersonian memory, Depression-era public mapping, and the modern urban landscape to come.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Rivanna River
- Shenandoah National Park
- Monticello
- University of Virginia
- Woolen Mills
- Ivy
- Pantops
- Earlysville
- Ruckersville
- Carter Mountain
- Smith Mountain
- Unnamed roads, trails, and paths
- Lake Monticello
Historical context & cartographic details
- Map name: Charlottesville Quadrangle
- Created in 1939
- Produced by the US Geological Survey
- Provides a detailed topographical view of Charlottesville, Virginia and the surrounding area
- Uses a detailed color scheme to indicate elevation changes
- Includes contour lines to show hills, valleys, and other landforms
- Reflects the classic early 20th-century USGS cartographic style
- Serves as a historical snapshot of the area in 1939
- Documents urbanization, land-use patterns, and cultural landscape changes over time
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.
Published in 1939 by the United States Geological Survey, “Charlottesville Quadrangle” presents a finely ordered topographic portrait of central Virginia at a moment when the region balanced rural landscapes, historic estates, and expanding urban life. The map centers on Charlottesville, a city already defined by its association with the University of Virginia and by its proximity to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s celebrated mountaintop home. In the disciplined USGS style, contour lines, color distinctions, waterways, roads, and settlement patterns combine to create a richly legible view of Albemarle County’s terrain. More than a practical survey, it captures the geography of a culturally layered landscape in 1939, where academic, agricultural, presidential, and transportation histories converged.
The US Geological Survey brought to this map the standardized precision that made its quadrangles indispensable to engineers, planners, hikers, landowners, and government agencies throughout the twentieth century. Its cartography is restrained yet deeply expressive: elevation is communicated through close-set contour lines, while valleys, ridges, streams, roads, and built-up areas emerge with quiet authority. Around Charlottesville, the viewer can trace the physical logic of the place—the way roads follow gentler grades, neighborhoods gather near rail and river corridors, and hills shape the outward growth of the city. The result is a classic early twentieth-century American topographic map, scientific in purpose but unexpectedly elegant in its composition and detail.
Charlottesville itself appears as the cultural and urban heart of the sheet, with the University of Virginia standing as one of its defining landmarks. Founded by Thomas Jefferson and arranged around the celebrated Academical Village, the university had by 1939 become both an architectural monument and a major force in the city’s development. Nearby, Monticello occupies its commanding position on the high ground, a reminder that this landscape is inseparable from the early republic and Jefferson’s vision of education, agriculture, and civic life. The map’s roads, contours, and settlement symbols allow these historic sites to be understood not as isolated monuments, but as parts of a broader Piedmont landscape.
The Rivanna River and its tributaries give the quadrangle much of its natural structure, cutting through the terrain and linking mill sites, farms, roads, and settlements. Woolen Mills, east of downtown Charlottesville, evokes the industrial history of the river corridor, where water power and transportation helped shape local enterprise. Places such as Ivy, Pantops, Earlysville, and Ruckersville mark the surrounding rural network of crossroads, farms, and small communities. Carter Mountain and Smith Mountain rise as prominent topographic features, their slopes rendered through the measured rhythm of contour lines. The map also hints at later transformations, including landscapes that would become associated with modern residential and recreational development around Lake Monticello.
As a historical document, this 1939 Charlottesville map preserves the region just before the dramatic changes of the mid-twentieth century accelerated suburban growth, highway expansion, and shifting land use. Shenandoah National Park, newly established in the 1930s to the west of Charlottesville, forms part of the broader regional context in which Virginians and visitors increasingly understood the Blue Ridge and Piedmont as landscapes for conservation, travel, and recreation. Within the quadrangle, however, the older patterns remain vivid: county roads, paths, river crossings, hill farms, academic precincts, and historic estates. It is a map of transition, showing Charlottesville poised between Jeffersonian memory, Depression-era public mapping, and the modern urban landscape to come.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Rivanna River
- Shenandoah National Park
- Monticello
- University of Virginia
- Woolen Mills
- Ivy
- Pantops
- Earlysville
- Ruckersville
- Carter Mountain
- Smith Mountain
- Unnamed roads, trails, and paths
- Lake Monticello
Historical context & cartographic details
- Map name: Charlottesville Quadrangle
- Created in 1939
- Produced by the US Geological Survey
- Provides a detailed topographical view of Charlottesville, Virginia and the surrounding area
- Uses a detailed color scheme to indicate elevation changes
- Includes contour lines to show hills, valleys, and other landforms
- Reflects the classic early 20th-century USGS cartographic style
- Serves as a historical snapshot of the area in 1939
- Documents urbanization, land-use patterns, and cultural landscape changes over time
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.
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 10-year guarantee.
Our standard frame is a gallery-style black ash hardwood frame, with a simple, modern look. It is approximately 20mm (0.8in) wide. You can also view some lovely customer photos of framed maps and art.
We use super-clear acrylic glazing, also known as Perspex or Acrylite, instead of traditional glass. It is lighter, safer, and has lower reflectivity, giving the artwork a clearer, cleaner appearance.
Six standard frame colours are available at no extra cost: black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white, and antique gold. Custom framing and mounting/matting is also available for customers looking for something more specific.
Most maps, art prints, and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced wooden box frame, and then float the piece within a wooden outer frame. The finished result is beautifully presented, with no glazing between you and the artwork.
All frames are supplied ready to hang, with either string or brackets fitted to the back. Very large frames will include heavy-duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
We can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag, and other materials.
If you would prefer to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read our size guide before ordering.
We work with interior designers, hospitality businesses, property professionals, offices and corporate buyers on individual pieces and larger coordinated projects.
This map can be adapted for a particular wall, room or project, and our workshop can help coordinate the dimensions, material and framing before production.
- Exact, oversized and made-to-measure dimensions
- Custom framing, mounting and alternative materials
- Coordinated pieces for several rooms or locations
- Map personalisation, to mark important locations or add extra details
- Map and framing guidance from our workshop
- Local production for projects around the world
Every Unique Maps piece begins with an authentic cartographic source or an original design from our London studio.
For our historic maps, we source rare originals from libraries, archives, auction houses and private collections around the world. We carefully restore each map for print—repairing age-related damage, balancing colour and improving clarity while preserving its original detail, texture and character.
Once restored, the map is prepared for your chosen size and finish. Your piece is then printed and, where selected, framed close to its delivery destination.
Our map prints use acid-free 200gsm archival matte paper and fade-resistant pigment inks, creating a rich, non-glossy finish designed to last. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.
Canvas, cotton-rag and other specialist presentations are also available. Learn more about our materials and finishes.
Personalising your map
You can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. For personalised designs, we send a proof before printing and you can request changes before approval.
For more complex bespoke commissions, contact our design team.
Original or Aged
Choose Original for true-to-source colour, or Aged for a warmer, richer antique character created with our specialist ageing process. See examples of our Aged maps.
We’ve been restoring and producing maps and art prints since 1984, and we stand behind every piece.
Every order is covered by our 10-year guarantee and damage-free delivery guarantee. If your piece arrives damaged, we’ll replace or remake it free of charge. If anything else isn’t right, contact our workshop team and we’ll put it right promptly.
See our returns and refund policy for full details.
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