Cobb, David A., New Hampshire Maps to 1900. An Annotated Checklist. Concord: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1981. ISBN 0-87451-166-6. 23xl5cm., xv, 106pp., one illustration, paper. (University Press of New England, 17½ Lebanon St., Hanover, NH 03755, $14.00)

A checklist of maps conjures up the image of a mimeographed sheaf of papers stapled at the upper left.  This work, however, is a nicely produced, thorough, and useful listing of New Hampshire maps.  There are separate listings for 516 items.  Each item gives the publisher or engraver, the title, place and date of publication, scale, size, location of copies, and comments.  Supplements deal with USGS maps and Sanborn fire insurance maps.  A few manuscript maps are included.  There are separate person and place indexes.  The listings for the mid-19th-century maps are particularly helpful, since those maps are often given scant attention in the usual references.  The index lists, for example, 22 items by SA.  Mitchell.  Other features include a description of several collections of New Hampshire maps and an introductory essay.  An unusual and very helpful item is a list of old place names with their modern replacement.  There were a few minor lapses.  Item 57 was not identified as being from Universal Magazine, the Finley maps undergo a mysterious scale change, and Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick has become Mast, Crewell & Kirkpatrick.  Still, these are trivial, and I highly commend this work to all dealers and libraries.  Certainly the price is right.  Collectors of New England material should also want to pick up a copy.

David C. Jolly, 1989