Located on the banks of the iconic Lake Superior, the twin ports at Duluth, MN, and Superior, WI, helped spur economic development and settlement in the region, beginning with French fur trappers in the seventeenth century. By 1915 the area had become a significant gateway for goods making their way to the Midwest and had experienced considerable growth and development. Both cities attracted immigrants from across Western Europe and Scandinavia, which established neighborhoods and communities based on cultural lines. The port in Duluth is the furthest inland port that is accessible to ocean-going vessels and the largest on any Great Lake.
Illustrated and published by Henry Wellge, this map bears a distinctive style and classic aesthetic that transports the viewer back in time immediately. Wellge was among five cartographers responsible for creating more than half of all panoramic maps included in the Library of Congress, and his prolific body of work remains some of the most revered maps made during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Wellge's lithographs were used to promote towns and cities across the United States, and with the expansion of the Great Northern Railway in the late nineteenth century, the area experienced a boom in population.
Bird's eye perspectives were widely popular during this period and provide a glimpse of the development of American culture as new areas were established and settled. The Twin Ports remained one of the largest ports in the United States, surpassing New York City in tonnage annually and throughout the twentieth century.
