Panoramic map artist
A. Ruger
The pioneer of the American bird’s-eye view, who drew more than sixty towns in a single year.
On Picturepops™ cards · 4
The life
1829–1899Born Prussia
Albert Ruger was born in Prussia, emigrated to the United States and worked as a mason before drawing Union camps while serving with the Ohio Volunteers in the Civil War. From 1866, working from Battle Creek, Michigan, he became the first artist to make a success of panoramic maps, walking the streets of towns in some twenty-two states and Canada and drawing them as if seen from high above; in 1869 alone he made more than sixty. He died in Akron, Ohio, in 1899. Our cards Moccasin Bend from Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga and The Grand Court, Omaha each have one of his bird’s-eye views inside, and his work also appears in Dayton: Main Street by Moonlight and Memphis from the River.