This very delicately colored plan of Rowe's Wharf lays out the square footage of the structures and surrounding area existing at the time. This plan anticipates the construction of Atlantic Avenue, which would eventually cut through the brick stores and wooden shed delineated on this manuscript drawing.

Longfellow was a draftsman at Boston City Hall in the 1860s and then worked with the lithographic firm of A. Meisel from 1871-1874. He was a nephew of the poet by the same name.