Old Map of Western Caribbean by Cram, 1886: Cuba, Hispaniola, Havana, Kingston, Santo Domingo, Windward Passage, Matanzas

2026-04-11T04:12:04+01:00

Price: 0.00 - 1875.00 (42 variants)

Cuba, Jamaica and San Domingo is George F. Cram’s elegant 1886 portrait of the western Caribbean at a moment of accelerating modernity. Issued for his American Railway Atlas, it marries the sober clarity of transport cartography with the poise of a late‑19th‑century decorative style—soft pastels, finely stippled coastlines, and crisp, legible typography. The composition sweeps from the Straits of Florida to the Windward Passage, placing the great islands in thoughtful relation to one another and to the maritime corridors that knit them to the Gulf and Atlantic worlds. An inset of the City of Havana supplies intimate urban detail, anchoring the regional view with a close study of Cuba’s defining port.

Physical geography is rendered with persuasive nuance. Mountainous backbones rise in muted shading, coastal lowlands breathe in paler tones, and the islands’ intricate littorals are scalloped with illustrative precision. The graphic cadence of headlands, capes, and sheltered bays reflects a navigator’s attention to approach and anchorage, while the depiction of straits and channels—Florida, Yucatán, and the Windward—foregrounds the sea as highway. Rivers and interior relief are hinted through contouring, guiding the eye from Cuba’s broad central plains to the rugged east and across Jamaica’s uplands, while Hispaniola’s eastern highlands signal both barrier and watershed within the regional system.

Cities and towns appear as purposeful nodes within clearly drawn political boundaries. Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Camagüey, and Santiago de Cuba punctuate Cuba’s rim and interior, articulating the island’s economic geography from sugar ports to administrative centers. Across the Caribbean Sea, Kingston and Spanish Town balance Jamaica’s south coast commercial axis, with Montego Bay watching the northwest approaches. On Hispaniola’s eastern half, Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís mark a Dominican seaboard then expanding through plantation exports. The borders are crisp yet restrained—asserting jurisdiction without overwhelming topography—an effective visual grammar for a region where sovereignty, commerce, and coastline converge.

True to its atlas lineage, the map is animated by routes. Maritime lanes arc between Havana, Kingston, and the Gulf ports, their courses braided through the Straits of Florida and the Windward Passage, with navigational notations that speak to steamship era precision—waypoints, bearings, and carefully observed corridors. Overland, rail connections are registered where established, especially in Cuba’s corridors tying plantations to harbors, while principal roads echo older colonial itineraries. Southern Florida enters as the northern threshold: keys, banks, and shoals signal the delicate seam between peninsula and Caribbean. Together, these threads of movement reveal a logistics map of empire, trade, and modern travel.

Cram—one of the United States’ most industrious late‑19th‑century cartographic publishers—brought a data‑rich, reader‑forward discipline to this sheet. His atlases helped Americans visualize distant theaters of interest just as U.S. attention intensified in the Caribbean, foreshadowing the strategic debates that would precede the Spanish‑American War. The Havana inset underscores that focus: a harbor city drawn with the care due a hemispheric pivot, its roadstead, waterfront, and principal quarters clarified for merchants and mariners alike. The whole composition exemplifies Cram’s method—balanced color, disciplined lettering, and layers of political and physical intelligence—yielding a map that is at once instructive, navigational, and quietly beautiful.

Cities and towns on this map

Cuba:

Havana

Santiago de Cuba

Matanzas

Cienfuegos

Camagüey

Jamaica:

Kingston

Montego Bay

Spanish Town

Dominican Republic:

Santo Domingo

San Pedro de Macorís

Notable Features & Landmarks

Inset Map: Detailed representation of the City of Havana

Borders: Clear political boundaries between Caribbean nations

Coastlines: Well-defined, illustrating the intricate geography of the islands

Maritime Routes: Notable shipping lanes and navigational markers are depicted

Physical Features: Coastal features and mountainous regions highlighted with contour lines

Historical and design context

Date of creation: 1886

Mapmaker: George F. Cram, a leading late-19th-century atlas publisher in the United States

Issued in Cram’s scarce American Railway Atlas, emphasizing transport-oriented cartography

Design/style: Soft pastel colors, illustrative coastlines, and distinct typography typical of the era

Historical significance: Reflects late-19th-century Caribbean geopolitics and rising U.S. interests before the Spanish–American War

Themes: Political boundaries, physical geography, and transportation routes, with emphasis on maritime navigation and railway connections

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 90in (230cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

Please note: the labels on this map are hard to read if you order a map that is 16in (40cm) or smaller. The map is still very attractive, but if you would like to read the map easily, please buy a larger size.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this map.