"Bird's eye" view, or panoramic maps, such as the one on the right, were a popular cartographic form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Advances in color printmaking during the nineteenth century made it possible to produce cheap copies of these maps, which were popular wall hangings in homes and businesses. Cities are depicted as prosperous and industrious, as these maps often were published to attract new property buyers and investors to an area. The preparation of perspective maps was a long process: the artist would walk the streets of a city sketching buildings and identifying features before drawing them into the selected oblique perspective.

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