Titled “Baton Rouge West,” this United States Geological Survey quadrangle was surveyed in 1953 and published with a 1954 imprint, capturing Louisiana’s capital at a revealing mid-century moment. Drawn at the detailed 1:24,000 scale, it presents Baton Rouge and its western approaches with the clarity and precision that made USGS topographic mapping indispensable to planners, engineers, travelers, and public agencies. The map’s disciplined color scheme distinguishes urban fabric, waterways, wooded tracts, roads, railways, and public landmarks, while contour lines trace the subtle elevation changes of a riverine landscape. More than a technical document, it is a portrait of a city poised between historic riverfront identity and the expanding infrastructure of postwar America.

The Mississippi River dominates the composition, curving powerfully through the mapped landscape and defining the geography, economy, and history of Baton Rouge. Along its banks, the city’s long relationship with commerce, transportation, and political authority becomes immediately legible. Baton Rouge, already a cultural and governmental center, appears as a dense network of streets, institutions, and residential districts, while Port Allen occupies the opposite bank as an essential counterpart in the regional river corridor. Rail lines, highways, and local roads reveal a transportation system shaped by both the river’s opportunities and its constraints. The map captures the enduring pattern of settlement along the Mississippi, where levees, crossings, industrial access, and civic development all converged.

Beyond the urban core, the map opens into a landscape of bayous, drainage channels, wooded lowlands, and swampy terrain characteristic of south Louisiana. Manchac Swamp, Bayou Fountain, Braxton Creek, and numerous ditches and water bodies illustrate the hydrological complexity that has always shaped life in and around Baton Rouge. The USGS treatment of these features is both functional and elegant: blue waterways thread through green wooded areas and the gridded geometry of streets and roads. The careful depiction of drainage is especially meaningful in a region where water management, flooding, agriculture, and urban growth are inseparable. In this sense, the map records not only where things were, but how the landscape worked.

Produced by the United States Geological Survey, the map belongs to one of the most influential cartographic enterprises in American history. Founded in the nineteenth century, the USGS became the nation’s authoritative source for topographic, geological, and hydrological mapping, supporting public safety, infrastructure development, natural resource management, and scientific understanding. By the 1950s, its quadrangle maps had achieved a distinctive graphic language: restrained, systematic, and exceptionally readable. “Baton Rouge West” reflects that mature style, combining survey rigor with an understated visual beauty. Every symbol—school, road, railway, marsh, contour, and public building—serves a practical purpose while contributing to a richly layered record of place.

As a historical document, this map is especially compelling for what it reveals about Baton Rouge during the early postwar era. The city’s neighborhoods, parks, public buildings, roads, and transportation corridors appear at a point before later decades of suburban expansion, highway transformation, and metropolitan growth altered the region’s form. It allows the modern viewer to compare the Baton Rouge of the 1950s with the city known today, tracing continuities along the river and changes in land use, infrastructure, and settlement. The result is a refined and evocative cartographic snapshot: a capital city, a great river, and a lowland Louisiana landscape rendered with the authority and precision of the USGS.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Baton Rouge
• Port Allen
• Mississippi River
• Manchac Swamp
• Bayou Fountain
• Braxton Creek
• Numerous streets and highways in Baton Rouge
• Various parks and green spaces
• Neighborhoods and residential areas within Baton Rouge
• Water bodies and drainage ditches
• Railways and transportation routes
• Public buildings and landmarks indicated by the map's symbols

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey as a historical 1:24,000 topographical map.
• Dated 1953, with a 1954 imprint.
• Shows Baton Rouge and the surrounding area during a period of mid-20th-century urban development.
• The USGS is a notable governmental agency with a long history of geological surveying and mapping in the United States.
• Reflects the USGS mission of providing information to support public safety, infrastructure, and natural resource management.
• Features a clear color scheme differentiating built-up areas, water bodies, and wooded regions.
• Uses contour lines to indicate elevation changes in and around Baton Rouge.
• Offers a snapshot of 1950s city planning, infrastructure, and the evolving urban landscape.
• Highlights the importance of the Mississippi River to the region.
• Emphasizes the longstanding urban development along the river.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.