G. W. & C. B. Colton

G. W. & C. B. Colton was the continuation of the publishing enterprise founded by Joseph Hutchins Colton (1800–1893), a leading figure in nineteenth-century American cartography. Colton began his career by acquiring copyrights to maps from earlier publishers, including David H. Burr, and reissuing them under his own imprint. By the mid-nineteenth century he had established a major map publishing house in New York that produced not only atlases but also wall maps, pocket maps, guidebooks, and specialized railroad maps, reflecting the rapid growth and expansion of the United States.

In the 1850s, Colton brought his sons George Woolworth Colton (1827–1901) and Charles B. Colton (1831–1916) into the business, which was soon renamed G. W. & C. B. Colton. George Colton is credited with producing their most important publication, the General Atlas, first issued in 1857 and widely circulated in subsequent decades. The brothers carried on the business after their father’s retirement, and in 1898 they entered into partnership with August R. Ohman, publishing as Colton, Ohman & Co.. The Colton name disappeared from active use in 1901 when Ohman continued the firm on his own, but the Coltons’ maps and atlases remain among the most significant American cartographic works of the nineteenth century.