Source and Reading Supports

Share the factual source cards or glossary when helpful. Retain the teaching directions here with the teacher. Students can complete all tasks from the supplied crop packets and report passage; browsing the originals is optional and may change later exposure.

A new and correct plan of the town of Boston. Published in London in 1775 (October, according to the catalog); creator unnamed in the catalog. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Detail from the original map. Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018590109/

Published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, October 1775. It represents Revolutionary-period Boston; an exact survey date is not stated. The catalog does not name a creator. Do not supply a creator from another repository’s differently cataloged copy.

Map of Boston for 1883. Sampson, Davenport & Co., Boston, 1883. The print also has a separate 1882 copyright-entry date. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Detail from the original map. Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/76692216/

A Boston directory map with broader metropolitan coverage. The full original’s scale is 1:19,800, and distance circles describe half-mile distances from City Hall. These are not a matched scale for the earlier plan.

1861 House Bill 0062. Report Of The Committee On Public Lands Regarding Back Bay Lands. Massachusetts House of Representatives, Committee on Public Lands; February 7, 1861. First report page. State Library of Massachusetts. Source: https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/725940

The quoted phrase appears in the paragraph immediately below REPORT on the first report page. The modern-language passage is a paraphrase, not another quotation. The selected passage does not prove completion or universal benefit.

Both map images are Library of Congress scans delivered through Wikimedia Commons as public-domain reproductions. Map scan records: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_new_and_correct_plan_of_the_town_of_Boston._LOC_2018590109.jpg and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Boston_for_1883._LOC_76692216.jpg . The original 1861 state report is public domain by age in the United States. Keep these source credits with reused details. Details retain original orientation and appearance; they are cropped selections.

Offer the source card read aloud, a zoomed crop, or the neutral description on the following page with the task. Let a learner point, dictate, annotate a copy or answer orally. Preserve the request to connect evidence and name limits. These alternatives can reduce barriers to small lettering or writing; they do not establish independent visual map-reading when the details were read for the learner.

Optional response stems: “The [date] map labels … near …”; “The other map shows …”; “Using [anchor], I infer …”; “The report adds …”; “This does not establish …”. Give only the stems needed; supply neither the inference nor the answer.

For matching, use the location directions printed in each student packet. They identify general areas through common labels, not precisely registered coordinates. When enlarging a crop, retain its source card and all features needed by the task.

Read the selected description alongside its source card and task. These descriptions state depicted features; students still decide how the evidence supports a comparison. Use only the detail selected for the current task.

Earlier Common detail

Tan, monochrome map detail with COMMON, Beacon Street, Cambridge Street and Beacon Hill labels. A heavy curved boundary runs along the left side of the Common. Small tree symbols line parts of the Common; streets and blocks appear to its right and above.

Later Common detail

Colored map detail with PUBLIC COMMON and PUBLIC GARDEN at right, CHARLES across a large area with parallel lines at upper left, and Beacon St, Marlborough St and Commonwealth Avenue in a street grid between them. Lines, blocks, labels and folds overlap in places.

Earlier Mill Pond detail

Monochrome map detail with a bounded area labeled Mill Pond. E. & N. Mill Dam runs along its upper boundary. Prince Street, Salem Street and Hanover Street appear in the street network to the right; Cambridge Street is along the lower edge.

Later northern detail

Colored northern Boston map detail with Charles River at left and a dense network of streets, rail lines, depots and wharves. Prince, Salem and Hanover labels occur toward the right; Causeway, Beverly and Merrimac labels occur to their left.

Earlier southern detail

Monochrome map detail with Essex Street near the top, Orange Street along a narrow strip extending down the left, a Fortification label near its lower end, and a compass in the open area to the right. Heavy boundaries flank the strip.

Later southern detail

Colored map detail of the area south of Essex Street with street blocks, rail lines, depots and a shoreline at right. Names include Washington, Harrison Avenue and Albany. Colored areas and parallel water lines occur beside the street network.