Totten et al, Joseph G. REPORTS OF COMMISSIONERS ON PORTLAND HARBOR, ACCOMPANIED BY STATISTICS OF COMMERCE, RAILWAYS, &C. OFTHE STATE OF MAINE, AND CITY OF PORTLAND, AND BY PROCEEDINGS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. Portland: Printed by David Tucker, 1855. 8vo., cloth with stamped design and with title stamped in gilt on the front cover, 61pp., plus a map of The Wharf Line of Portland Harbor, and J. W. Hill's View of Portland in 1855.
In very good condition with very small nicks at the spine ends, a small break at afold to the Map, and with a repaired tear and some small edge losses to the View, and with the View detatched from the book. The map unfolded measures 21 x 26 3/4 inches; the unfolded view measures 16 1/2 x 41 inches. Comparing this printing of the view it appears to have been printed separately, with an uper margin and without the sky, rather than simply cut-down from the larger version: there is no inking of the sky area in the upper margin.
There is a presentation inscription on the front free endpaper reading "Thos. Chadwick Esqr/With respects of/Neal Dow"
Neal Dow, (1804-1897) is regarded as "The Father of Prohibition." His activism was instrumental in gaining passage of a prohibition law by the State Legislature, which he, when he served as Mayor of Portland (1851-52 and 1855-56), enforced with increasingly harsh penalties. This eventually resulted in riots against the law in which a man was killed, and Dow did not seek re-election thereafter. At the time of the preparation of the book, James B. Cahoon was Myor, but Dow became Mayor later in 1855, and thus it was as Mayor that he gave a copy to Chadwick.
