I was curious if there is any book store or collectible store in the Dayton area that specializes in the vintage local publications. The one I am looking for is titled "Map of Dayton, Ohio, Oakwood and Environs" published by Frederick J. Cellarius up through at least the early 70s. It came folded in a blue paper cover that was attached to the map. When I was growing up it was ubiquitous and I never saw a different style of local map until around 1970 at the earliest. I haven't seen an intact one of these for years.

 

These maps are extremely interesting because they have extremely small legends embedded in the map that indicate street numbers and names of certain businesses and institutions.

 

This guy has scans of the exact type of map that I want: http://www.davidlauri.com/galleries/Dayton1945/

 

Here's the cover from his web site. This is a 1945 map, and the design was the same up through the last ones I saw in the store. The color is faded but close.

 

 

Of course, there is the usual vulture phenomenon with this collectible - I am finding web stores offering the map for $95.

 

Thanks.

Yeah, they were available as late as the late 1980s or early 1990s.  I had one but it got really beat-up.

 

The cartography was pretty good.  The  same company used to publish those huge real-estate atlases from the 1880s or 1890s into the 1950s, I think.

Thanks, Jeffery, for at least acknowledging this post.

 

Every single map like this that my parents owned got completely beat up and was falling apart at the folds. It didn't take long, either - maybe a year of light use and it was disintegrating.

 

I think I'd have to stumble into a garage sale of someone who stockpiled some copies that were never used in order to lay my hands on one in decent shape.

 

My goal is to scan a copy at high detail (600 DPI.)

Update: I scored an auction win of one of these from Ebay (where else?) $7.95 + $2.50 shipping.

 

Not TOO bad.

 

It's highly nostalgic for me because Dayton is the only city I know of that had city maps like these, and these maps formed my childhood impression of the city's geography.

This is wonderful. I'm going to keep my eye out for these on eBay now too.