Titled “Concord,” this United States Geological Survey topographical map was created in 1943 and issued with a 1947 imprint, offering a finely measured portrait of one of Massachusetts’ most storied landscapes at a pivotal mid-twentieth-century moment. Drawn at a scale of 1:31,680, it captures Concord and its surrounding countryside with the disciplined precision for which the USGS became renowned: contour lines articulate hills and shallow valleys, waterways are picked out in blue, and roads, railways, settlements, and wooded tracts are organized into a clear, elegant geographic record. Published just after the Second World War, the map preserves Concord before the full force of postwar suburban expansion, when historic village patterns, rural roads, conservation lands, and emerging modern infrastructure still coexisted in delicate balance.

The mapmaker, the United States Geological Survey, was founded in 1879 and became the nation’s authoritative scientific mapping agency, producing topographic sheets that combined practical utility with extraordinary documentary value. In a place like Concord, the USGS method is especially rewarding: the measured language of contours, symbols, and hydrography reveals the underlying terrain behind a landscape more often remembered through literature and Revolutionary history. Elevation changes are subtle rather than dramatic, yet the close spacing and flow of contour lines disclose the glacially shaped ridges, low hills, wetlands, and river corridors that define eastern Massachusetts. The map’s cartographic style is restrained and systematic, but its cumulative effect is rich, allowing the viewer to read both the natural form of the land and the human imprint laid across it.

Concord itself occupies the heart of the sheet, situated amid a remarkable network of rivers, ponds, roads, and wooded preserves. The Sudbury and Assabet Rivers, which meet to form the Concord River, are central to the geography and history of the town, their meandering courses threading through lowlands, marshes, and meadowlands. Nearby Walden Pond appears as one of the map’s most resonant features, inseparable from Henry David Thoreau’s experiment in simple living and his enduring meditation on nature, self-reliance, and society. The site associated with Thoreau’s cabin gives the map a literary charge, transforming a technical survey into a guide to one of America’s most influential philosophical landscapes. Around it, smaller ponds, wooded tracts, and rural lanes evoke the terrain Thoreau walked and observed.

Beyond its literary associations, the map records a region shaped by transportation, settlement, and conservation. Route 2 and Route 62, together with local roads and railway lines, reveal Concord’s connection to the wider Boston metropolitan area while still preserving the structure of an older New England town. Residential neighborhoods appear alongside farms, forests, reservoirs, and public lands, giving insight into land use before later decades of growth altered the suburban fringe. Estabrook Woods, the Cambridge Reservoir, and the area of Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge speak to the environmental significance of the region, where wetlands, floodplains, and upland woods formed a mosaic of habitats. These features make the map not only a navigational document, but also a record of changing relationships between settlement, infrastructure, and conservation.

Historically, this map captures Concord at an evocative threshold: old enough to retain the spatial memory of colonial roads, agricultural fields, and village centers, yet modern enough to show the transportation networks and residential expansion of the 1940s. Its topography allows one to understand why settlement gathered where it did, how rivers structured movement and agriculture, and why certain woods, ponds, and wetlands resisted development. For collectors drawn to American history, Concord carries exceptional associations—with the opening conflict of the American Revolution, with Transcendentalist thought, and with the preservation of New England’s natural and cultural landscape. The USGS presentation gives those associations a grounded, empirical clarity, rendering a celebrated place not as myth alone, but as terrain: measured, inhabited, and alive with historical meaning.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Concord, MA
• Walden Pond
• Sudbury River
• Assabet River
• Estabrook Woods
• Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
• Thoreau's Cabin
• Cambridge Reservoir
• Roadways, including Route 2 and Route 62
• Railways
• Various residential neighborhoods
• Parks and forests surrounding Concord
• Other small lakes and ponds

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey, this historical topographical map shows Concord, Massachusetts and the surrounding area at a scale of 1:31,680.
• Created in 1943 and published with a 1947 imprint.
• Published by the US Geological Survey (USGS), a major American mapping and surveying organization known for detailed geological and topographical maps.
• Shows topographical features and infrastructure in and around Concord in detail.
• Uses traditional cartographic elements, including contour lines for elevation, a clear legend and scale.
• Features a color scheme with earthy tones for landforms and blue for water bodies.
• Detailed contour lines indicate elevation changes, hills and valleys across the region.
• Reflects the geographic and infrastructural layout of Concord shortly after World War II.
• Useful for observing later changes in land use, population growth and urban development since publication.

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.