Old Map of Essex, Connecticut by USGS, 1944 – Old Saybrook, Connecticut River & Long Island Sound

Titled simply “Essex,” this U.S. Geological Survey topographical map presents the lower Connecticut River country with the precision and restraint characteristic of mid-century federal cartography. Dated 1944 and published with a 1951 imprint, it records a shoreline and riverine landscape at a moment when Connecticut’s historic villages, working waterfronts, rail corridors, and road networks were being drawn into the modern postwar era. At a scale of 1:31,680, the map offers an intimate yet comprehensive view of Essex and Old Saybrook, extending across the estuarine reaches of the Connecticut River toward Long Island Sound. Its careful use of contour lines, hydrographic detail, and color-coded land features makes it both a practical survey document and a finely observed portrait of place.

The U.S. Geological Survey, founded in 1879, became the nation’s great authority on measured landscape, producing maps that combined scientific rigor with exceptional cartographic clarity. In this Essex sheet, the USGS style is immediately recognizable: disciplined typography, precise road and rail notation, blue waterways, and finely graded contour lines that translate hills, valleys, marshes, and shorelines into an elegant visual language. Rather than dramatizing the terrain, the map reveals it patiently, allowing the viewer to read the land through subtle elevation intervals and the geometry of settlement. This was mapping as infrastructure—created for engineers, planners, travelers, military users, and local authorities—yet today it also serves as a historical document of remarkable beauty and permanence.

The heart of the map is the lower Connecticut River, one of New England’s great waterways, shown as it broadens near Essex before reaching the Sound at Old Saybrook. The river’s coves, islands, marsh edges, and tributary inlets appear in exacting detail, emphasizing the deep relationship between settlement and water in this part of Connecticut. Deep River is identified to the north, while Saybrook Point anchors the mouth of the river, a place long associated with colonial history, navigation, and coastal defense. Westbrook Harbor, Duck Island, Long Beach, and the open waters of Long Island Sound extend the composition seaward, giving the map a distinctive maritime character.

Inland, the sheet records the varied topography of the Connecticut shoreline, where low coastal flats rise into wooded uplands and broken ridges. Contour lines trace modest but meaningful changes in elevation, including features such as Chauncey Peak and the surrounding high ground that shape local drainage and routes of travel. Small ponds, creeks, wetlands, and forested tracts are interwoven with farm roads, village streets, and open country, preserving a mid-20th-century pattern of land use before later suburban development altered many of these landscapes. The map’s topographic detail invites close reading: a bend in a road following a slope, a railway seeking level ground, or a settlement gathered near navigable water.

The inclusion of Route 1, local highways, and railway lines gives the map particular historical resonance, capturing the transportation geography of coastal Connecticut during the 1940s and early 1950s. Essex, with its maritime heritage and riverfront identity, appears within a wider network linking small towns, harbors, industrial sites, and resort shorelines. Old Saybrook, one of Connecticut’s oldest European settlements, is shown not only as a historic place but as a working junction of road, rail, river, and sea. For collectors, this map is compelling because it fixes a familiar region at a specific moment: before interstate highways, before widespread shoreline redevelopment, and before many local landscapes were reshaped by the pressures of modern growth.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Essex, Connecticut
• Old Saybrook, Connecticut
• Connecticut River
• Deep River
• Westbrook Harbor
• Saybrook Point
• Long Island Sound
• Duck Island
• Long Beach
• Chauncey Peak
• Route 1 and other roads and highways
• Railways, including the route through Essex
• Various water bodies, creeks, and ponds in the area

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey.
• Historical 1:31,680 topographical map.
• Dated 1944 with a 1951 imprint.
• Shows Essex, Old Saybrook, and surrounding areas in Connecticut.
• Features detailed contour lines indicating elevation changes and terrain.
• Uses color coding to show topographical features, including water bodies and forested areas.
• Relief is represented through contour lines and shading, indicating hills, valleys, and flatlands.
• Includes hydrographic features such as rivers and lakes.
• Reflects the mid-20th-century landscape, including features that may have changed due to later development.
• Offers insight into land use and infrastructure from the period.

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.