The 1863 Champaign County Map

Just five years after Alexander Bowman’s 1858 Map of Urbana and West Urbana, Bowman surveyed and drew the 1863 Map of Champaign County. This map depicts county townships, villages, and landowner divisions. It is similar in style to the 1858 map, highlighting the county’s residential and commercial buildings. An original print of the map is held in the British Library. Champaign County Historical Archives has a reproduction displayed that Urbana resident Diane Hillard hand-colored to replicate the map as it would have looked initially.

This map shows the county's growth between 1858 and 1863 due to the growing popularity of the Illinois Central Railroad. Commerce and population boomed as a result of the railroad coming to town. This significant change granted the county the consideration of the Champaign-Urbana for the state agriculture college funded by the Morrill Act of 1862. 

The map includes drawings of the Bowman-designed court house and the Urbana and Champaign Institute, two buildings of intrigue in the county's political hemisphere.

“I then obtained the job of drawing the plans and superintending the building of the Champaign County Court House which occupied me two years and for which I received $1700, out of that and some drafting I did at the same time, I saved about 7 hundred dollars. About a year ago I commenced a map of this Champaign County, at which I have been constantly employed since I put it in the hands of the engraver this week and expect to get through with it in about 4 months the first of June.”

- Alexander Bowman, The Alexander Bowman Journals, February 1864