Seattle 1908 Shaded Relief Map

By 1908, Seattle was a city transformed. A decade earlier, the Klondike Gold Rush had turned it into the primary supply and transportation gateway to the Yukon goldfields, fueling a boom in population and commerce. That growth was about to be showcased to the world: just south of the University of Washington campus, land that was still covered in second-growth forest and dense underbrush in 1908 was about to be cleared for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, a world's fair that would open the following year, in 1909, to celebrate the region's development.

We georeferenced the original 1908 survey and applied modern digital elevation data to add true shaded relief to Seattle's hills and waterways. The shading is printed flat on the paper — not raised or textured — so it frames and hangs like any fine art print.

Available unframed, or framed in black or walnut.

Note on legibility: text on the original map is small and can be difficult to read given the map's age. In areas where the relief shading is darkest, the underlying labels are not legible. We recommend the largest available size for the best detail.