Ernest Dudley Chase (1878-1966) (after)
Mercator Map of the World United: A Pictorial History of Transport and Communications and Paths to Permanent Peace
Oliver K. Whiting, London and Ernest Dudley Chase, Winchester, Massachusetts: c. 1945
Color photo-process print
15 x 36 inches, overall
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Pictorial Map of the World United
Ernest Dudley Chase, c. 1945
Ernest Dudley Chase, c. 1945
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A pictorial map with a hopeful message of the world united in peace, created as World War II was drawing to a close. It bears an optimistic and humanistic message of social progress through technological advancement. Historic milestones in transportation and communications history are illustrated throughout. The legend surrounding the cartouche includes symbols for “organizations already at work on an international basis” and modes of travel and communication. These include religion; travel by land, sea and air; international mail, telephone, and telegraph; radio; The Red Cross; health organizations; drug control; standards of measurements; and “the great international businesses.” Messages of peace abound, including a drawing, center top, of flags of different nations with a rainbow and the slogan “Bound by a code of international friendship, law and order, united we stand -- divided we fall.” In addition to the more historically oriented illustrations are allegorical drawings such as one of several men on a globe-form sailboat emblazoned “World Unity,” with the caption “We are all in the same boat.” The artist also illustrates ideas for new technologies such as a missile captioned “Rocket Mail of the future.” The map is executed on Mercator's projection with a decorative cartouche, the border with ornate corners decorated with cornucopias, one in the traditional manner overflowing with fruit and vegetables, the other overflowing with machine parts.
This map is undated, but is mentioned in the biographical pamphlet A Meticulous Maker of Maps. It can be inferred from the text that when the pamphlet was written, the Second World War was not yet over but clearly winding down, a period that began in late 1944 until Germany surrendered in the spring of 1945. The text describes this map:
The latest Chase pictorial map -- “The World United,” a pictorial history of transport and communications and paths to permanent peace--is likely to have a tremendous vogue as after-the-war developments take place. This map, as it indicates, is predicated on a world united -- a smaller world than we have ever known, because distances have been annihilated by air travel. It demonstrates that we must, of necessity, live closer together because we are now, geographically, closer together. And in this pictorial presentation of this tremendous change in our daily lives and our future living, all thinking people will find much to study and evaluate. (p. 10)
A 1955 edition of this map, printed in different colors and with various modifications, including to the cartouche, is in the Harvard Map Collection (see References below).
Ernest Dudley Chase was a graphic artist from Winchester, Massachusetts. He gave many of his works to the Harvard Map Collection, Pusey Library, which featured them in the exhibition "The Pictorial Maps of Ernest Dudley Chase" from February to April 2003. According to the curators of the exhibit, Chase "designed pictorial maps ranging in scale from his own hometown to global themes of navigation, exploration, communication, and world peace. He could be alternately whimsical, didactic, and subtly allusive--often on the same map." Chase was also the author of The Romance of Greeting Cards, a history of the medium published in 1927, with a revised edition in 1956.
Cartouche: Mercator Map of The World United: A Pictorial History of Transport and Communications and Paths to Permanent Peace. Originated, Designed, Copyrighted and Distributed by Oliver K. Whiting of London, 10 East 23rd Street, New York City, 273 Regent St., London, Eng. Drawn and Published by Ernest Dudley Chase. Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning and wear.
References:
Cobb, David. “Re: Ernest Dudley Chase and Clara K. Chase.” E-mail correspondence to George Glazer Gallery dated 29 August 2005.
“Ernest Dudley Chase.” National Cyclopedia of American Biography. James T. White & Co., after 1966.
“Ernest Dudley Chase: A Worldview in Maps: Exhibit now on view at the State Library.” 22 May 2009. State Library of Massachusetts Blog. http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/05/ernest-dudley-chase-worldview-in-maps.html (22 July 2009).
“Harvard Map Collection Digital Maps.” Harvard College Library. http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/browseCombine?_collection=maps (23 July 2009).
“Map of the Month.” September 2008. Boston Map Society. http://bostonmapsociety.org/0908MapOfTheMonth.html (22 July 2009).
“Peace Map of the World United.” Harvard University Library Map Collection. 2008. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:1063118?buttons=y (15 April 2009).
"The Boston Map Society's Upcoming Events." Harvard Map Collection. 2002. http://hcl.harvard.edu/maps/bms/bmsevent.html (3 February 2003).
Thrift, Tim. A Meticulous Maker of Maps. Boston: Ernest Dudley Chase, c. 1945. 12 pp.