[WISCONSIN]

1856-57 Milwaukee City Directory and Business Advertiser, Containing Local and General Statistics, with a New Map of the City

Milwaukee: Daily Wisconsin Print, 1856.

First Edition. 4.5 x 7 inches, pp [8], 472, in original cloth-backed illustrated boards. Title page and two pages of ads immediately following are printed in four colors. Light rubbing to edges, old historical society stamp on title page, otherwise unmarked; near fine.

According to the Preface, this pioneer directory was printed under less than ideal circumstances. Only a small supply of type was available, "so that each particular form of the book had to be set up, printed and distributed" before the next one could be started. Despite the title, this copy has no map, nor did the only one we located in auction records. OCLC records on the few institutional holdings are vague, but none clearly indicates a map is present, and it may well have never been printed and/or bound in. Eberstadt (114: 833) describes the book as "a very credible volume, with a remarkable title-page containing ten different styles of type and almost as many varieties of colored inks. The hundreds of transportation, travel and commercial advertisements are also of much interest.” A 40-page "Local & General Statistics" section at the end offers details on the city's banks, insurance companies, railroads, plank roads, government, schools, fire department, churches, literary institutions, Masonic lodges, benevolent institutions, and newspapers.