Geo. R. Davis & Bros. and J. Chase Jr. of Portland published this street map of Portland (showing parts of the South Portland, then Cape Elizabeth, waterfront). It highlights the city's wards, which are outlined with hand coloring and numbered east to west.

Portland consisted of only the peninsula in the 1850s, as well as a small section of town which shared a border with Westbrook.

The name of the firm of 'Wm. J. Barker & Co. Lithographic Engravers and Map Publishers' of Philadelphia' is printed below the bottom right corner of the map. Barker was a surveyor and engraver in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His company continued beyond his immediate known work but was no longer in existence by the Civil War.