You know I love a hand-drawn map, even more so a watercolored one, and I love how the color on this one, depicting "the Southern states" nearly obscures its details, such that, if one didn't know better, it might be read as pure abstraction. Of course the outlines give it away--instant recognizability that speaks to it as being a much a symbol/icon as map. The inclusion of Arkansas (admitted to the Union on June 15, 1836, as the 25th state) date the map to after that, but the handwritten note acknowledging that inclusion make me think it was done not long after, prior to the Civil War I'm pretty certain (when Maryland, included here, would be part of the Union.) Signed by an Ellie Acker, and found along with two others of hers, one of them on paper with an embossed mark on the paper from the state of Massachusetts. A lovely thing that also carries quite a load of associations, past and present.
7 4/8" x 6 3/8", ink and watercolor on laid paper.
