This collection of beautiful and historic cartographic masterpieces will transform any room into a fascinating Texas map library.

In 1718, the French claimed everything east of the Rockies (except a few small English colonies in the Northeast) with the publication of Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi by Guillaume Delisle, mapmaker to the King of France. This landmark map was the first ever to use the place name, Texas, marking the location of Mission de los Teijas, establie en 1716.

In 1846,Samuel Augustus Mitchell published A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California, the first to show Texas as a state -- a year before the war with Mexico that made it one. In fact, this spectacularly detailed map was a controversial provocation that preceded the annexation of Texas and New Mexico.

Two years earlier, Josiah Gregg's 1844 Map of the Indian Territory, Northern Texas and New Mexico Showing the Great Western Prairies was regarded to be the most accurate and useful map of the region. It details the "Route of the Caravan from Arkansas to Chihuahua" heading west below the Red River and turning south across Rio Brazos and Rio Pecos.

Anticipating the outbreak of the Civil War, John Bachman prepared a series of "Panoramas of the Seat of War". His 1861 Bird's Eye View of Texas and Part of Mexico is a wonderfully detailed aerial view looking down to the already well developed port of Galveston and the emerging hub of Houston.

We complete this collection with a Texas-sized map of Houston, the 1869 City of Houston. This impressively large-scale map is the first comprehensive, detailed map of "modern day" Houston, showing all existing buildings and the names of their owners. It includes insets of the Original Plan of Houston; the Railroad Map of Texas; and a portrait of General Sam Houston.