Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps

302 Pages·2017·83.95 MB·English

by  Stephen J. Hornsby

picturing America

picturing America
the golden age of pictorial maps
Stephen J. Hornsby
the university of chicago press
chicago & london
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by Stephen J. Hornsby and The Library of Congress
All rights reserved. Published 2017.
Printed in China
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 38604- 1 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 38618- 8 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226386188.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hornsby, Stephen J. (Stephen John), 1956– author. | Ehrenberg, Ralph E., 1937–
writer of foreword. | Library of Congress. Geography and Map Division, contributor,
publisher.
Title: Picturing America : the golden age of pictorial maps / Stephen J. Hornsby.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, in association with the
Library of Congress, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Shows
maps of the United States of America and other geographical areas of the world. | “Pic-
torial maps are artistic renderings rather than scientific representations of places that
combine cartographic elements with texts and images and feature bold and arresting
graphic design, bright and cheerful colors, and lively detail. In the United States, the
1920s through about 1970 represented a golden age for the form, which this book looks
at and considers as a genre”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: lccn 2016012939 | isbn 9780226386041 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226386188
(e- book)
Subjects: lcsh: United States— Maps. | Pictorial maps. | Pictorial maps— History— 20th
century. | Cartography— United States— History— 20th century. | lcgft: Atlases. |
Pictorial maps.
Classification: lcc g1201.a5 h67 2017 | ddc 912.73— dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.
loc.gov/2016012939
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
for Anne

contents
Foreword by Ralph E. Ehrenberg ix
Pictorial Maps: An American Genre 1
Maps to Amuse 57
Maps to Instruct 77
Maps of Place and Region 117
Maps for Industry 185
Maps for War 225
Maps for Postwar America 243
Acknowledgments 267
Notes 269
Index 281

foreword
Maps and atlases have been an important part of the collections of the Library
of Congress since its establishment in 1800 when a congressional committee
purchased three maps and an atlas from a London dealer. From this modest
beginning, the Library’s cartographic holdings have grown during the past two
centuries to more than five million maps, atlases, globes, terrain models, and
geospatial digital datasets.
The Library’s Geography and Map Division has custody of the bulk of these
cartographic materials. Established in 1897 as the Hall of Maps to serve Con-
gress and US government agencies, the Geography and Map Division functions
as the National Map Library. Its primary responsibilities are developing and
preserving the Library’s cartographic collections and making them available
to Congress, government officials, scholars, and the general public through a
research reference center and website. An average of forty thousand analogue
and digital cartographic materials are acquired yearly through government de-
posits, transfers of superseded maps from US government libraries, copyright
deposits, domestic and international exchanges, purchases, and donations.
These range from rare maps and atlases to state- of- the- art electronic geospatial
datasets in 150 languages. Some four hundred thousand cartographic materials
have been cataloged, and their bibliographic records are available online. As
a major service to the map library community, the division also establishes,
ix