Joel--I agree with you!

Michael Conzen's scholarly work is the key to understanding the 
importance of county land ownership maps, plat books, and county 
atlases for the growth of commercial map publishing in the United 
States during the 19th century.

Also see:

Conzen, Michael P., ed., Chicago Mapmakers: Essays on the Rise of the 
City’s Map Trade. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society for Chicago Map 
Society, 1984.

_____. “The County Landownership Map in America: Its Commercial 
Development and Social Transformation, 1814-1939,” Imago Mundi 36 
(1984), 9-31.

For Indiana:

Kingsbury, Robert C. "The County Atlas in Indiana," Proceedings of the 
Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences 11 (1977), 81-90.

-Heiko

Quoting Joel Kovarsky <[log in to unmask]>:

>
> On 5/7/15 11:33 AM, Muhr, Heiko Heinrich Friedrich wrote:
>> Plat books map out land ownership.
>
> Here is a general discussion:
>
>
> Conzen, Michael. Landownership maps and county atlases, _Agricultural
> History_ 58(2): 118-22, 1984.
>
> Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3742988
>
>          Joel Kovarsky
>