Philippine Islands. [inset:] Map showing the relative position of Manila with Hong Kong and Formosa

Description

Original-colour lithograph; p. 102. verso: Hawaii (right side only), p. 101. With legend of the chief cities in left margin.

George Franklin Cram (1842–1928) was an American map publisher whose atlases helped popularise affordable, mass-produced cartography. After serving under Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War, he built a Chicago-based publishing business and produced the widely distributed “Unrivaled Atlas of the World” (published from the 1880s to 1952). His work became especially significant in mapping the Philippine Islands following the Spanish–American War, when the United States acquired the archipelago. Cram’s maps presented detailed depictions of provincial divisions, major cities, and transport routes, helping American audiences visualise and understand the Philippines as a new colonial territory in the early 20th century.