DESCRIPTION: SOLD
Manuscript map of the Marche and Cold Springs, Arkansas ca. 1890. The map is related to early Polish emigration to the area and was drawn or owned by "Helen Ch." (assumed Helen Choinski). Helen Choinski was the daughter of Timothy Choinski, a Polish nobleman, who founded the community at Warren, Arkansas in 1877. Helen Choinski worked as local Postmistress and telegrapher and in 1894 Helen married M. Schnable who worked for the Cotton Belt Railway. The map shows considerable skill and training in surveying and map making, but there is no indication Helen Choinski possessed such skills.
While in Wisconsin, Count Timothy von Choinski, a nobleman and political refuge from Poland, became concerned with the suffering of many of his fellow Polish immigrants who were residing in the slums of large cities such as New York and Chicago. Choinski wished to improve the working and living condition of these immigrants and began the search for a farming environment that was more familiar to these Poles. After meeting with the land agent for the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railway in March 1877, Choinski purchased 22,000 acres ten miles northwest of Little Rock.
Polish resettlement began in 1877 at Old Warren, Arkansas ten miles north of Little Rock. Later renamed the "Marche" after the French word for market, the community became a magnet for Polish emigres. The settlement of Marche is one of the most successful efforts to resettle immigrants in Arkansas history.
Sources:
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/marche-pulaski-county-3295/
https://honors.uca.edu/wiki/index.php/Marche
The illustration and quotation on this trade card were not unique to John Cosgrove but rather part of a stock design widely used by 19th-century printers who specialized in producing humorous or sentimental advertising cards. Lithographers commonly kept catalogs of ready-made comic scenes—like this seaside mother-and-child vignette with the line “It’s a wise child that knows its own mother at the sea side”—which merchants could customize by adding their own business imprint below. In this case, the printer simply inserted Cosgrove’s name, trade description, and Poydras Market address into the blank advertising panel at the bottom, allowing a small New Orleans fish dealer to benefit from professionally printed imagery at a fraction of the cost of commissioning original artwork.
PUBLICATION DATE: 
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Little Oak Bayou
CONDITION: Fair.
 Browned. Several tears and a large separated chunk, repaired from the verso.
COLORING: Hand color
ENGRAVER: 
SIZE: 14
" x
7 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 0
PRICE: $
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