Collection: F. W. Beers

Frederick William Beers (1839–1933) was an American map publisher, surveyor, and cartographer best known for his extensive county and town atlases of the nineteenth century. Born in Maryland, he was the son of James Botsford Beers, also a map publisher, and spent much of his life in New York, where he served as chief of the map division and Commissioner of Public Records in Brooklyn. Joining the family business in 1870, he worked with his father, brother Charles Henry Beers, and other relatives to produce some of the most detailed atlases of the era, including the Farm Line Atlas of the County of Kings and the Atlas of Long Island. His work combined careful surveying with elaborate engraved and hand-colored plates, making the Beers atlases both practical references and valuable historical records.

Over the course of his career, Beers oversaw or directly contributed to atlases covering nearly every county in New York State as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, and Vermont. His firm also published works further afield, including the Illustrated Atlas of the City of Richmond, Virginia (1876), which combined maps with views of buildings and businesses. Revered for their precision and artistry, the Beers atlases today remain indispensable resources for historians and genealogists tracing the growth of American towns and communities in the nineteenth century. Beers retired from publishing in 1930, remarkably still active into his nineties, and died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on September 8, 1933.