Huntingdon County Information Page

Mount Union borough

Bird's-eye view, 1906

Bird's-eye panorama of Mount Union
Bird's-eye panorama of Mount UnionLibrary of Congress Panoramic Maps (T. M. Fowler, 1906) l01

Mount Union in 1906, as Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler drew it.

Fowler, who lived from 1842 to 1922, made bird's-eye views of towns all over the country. This one was published by Fowler and Kelly of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and the Library of Congress holds it: a sheet 34 by 59 centimetres, listed as number 811 in its catalogue of panoramic maps.

He did not draw it from the air. There were no aeroplanes to draw it from. The Library's own note calls it a perspective map, not drawn to scale — a view assembled on the ground by a man walking the streets and working out how the town would look if you could hover above it.

He caught it at the right moment. Charles H. Welch, writing three years later, records that Mount Union had 1,086 people in 1900 and upward of 3,200 including suburbs by 1909.

Every street, mill and church is here. Zoom in and find your house.

Checked against the record. SOURCED at the Library of Congress record for the map itself. CONFIRMED: “Mount Union, Huntingdon Co., Pa. 1906”, published at Morrisville, Pennsylvania by Fowler & Kelly, c1906; drawn by T. M. Fowler, Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, 1842-1922; a sheet 34 by 59 centimetres; number 811 in the Library's catalogue of panoramic maps of cities in the United States and Canada. The page had his initials right and can now give his name, his dates and his publisher. CORRECTED, gently. The page said the view was “drawn from the air before airplanes”, which is a good line and slightly misleading: it was not drawn from the air at all. The Library's own note reads “Perspective map not drawn to scale.” Fowler worked from the ground and constructed the viewpoint. The page now says that, which is the more impressive fact. THE GROWTH CLAIM REPLACED WITH SOURCED FIGURES. The page said the town “tripled in size” in the decade after the map. Welch, writing in 1909, gives 1,086 in 1900 and upward of 3,200 including suburbs by the time he wrote — which is close to a trebling but over the nine years BEFORE 1909, not the decade after 1906. The page now carries his figures and his dates instead of an unsourced span.

Checked 2026-09-09 · Historic Mount Union collection

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