Description
The map was done by Louise E. Jefferson, a prominent African-American illustrator and designer for several decades in New York City. It is one of a series of maps of different places around the world published by the Friendship Press of the National Council of Churches. As Art Director of the Friendship Press, Jefferson illustrated many of the maps they published. These maps generally promote peace, tolerance and cooperation, with historical illustrations as well as illustrations relating to Christian institutions.
Louise E. Jefferson was an illustrator, art director, calligrapher, cartographer and photographer. During her long career, she produced a large body of work as an illustrator, graphic designer and photographer, both as a freelancer and as the art director of the Friendship Press, the publishing agent of the National Council of Churches, a post she held from 1942 to 1968. She may have been the first African-American woman to work as an art director in the publishing industry.
Jefferson was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to New York City to study art at Hunter College and Columbia University. There she came into contact with the artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance, and in 1935 was a founding member of the Harlem Artist’s Guild. Her first illustrated book, We Sing America (1936) created a stir when she depicted black and white children playing together; indeed, the book was banned by the governor of Georgia. Ironically, Jefferson later recounted that in her career as an artist, she personally encountered more sexism as a woman than racism as an African-American. Besides designing and illustrating books for publishers such as Viking and Doubleday, she produced numerous cultural pictorial maps for the Friendship Press emphasizing world cooperation and ethnic and racial tolerance, including Africa, China, and Native Americans in the United States. Jefferson frequently worked for African-American organizations, including the NAACP, for whom she designed holiday seals over a period of about 40 years. She also wrote and illustrated The Decorative Arts of Africa (1973), based on her travels in Africa during the previous decade, some of which were supported by grants from the Ford Foundation.
Full publication information: Published by Friendship Press, New York. Copyright, 1946, by Friendship Press, Inc.
Condition: Fine, the colors very bright, apparently not exposed to light. Original folds, as issued, flattened, and backed on Japanese paper, also closing a short marginal tear.
References:
“Extravagant Crowd: Louise E. Jefferson.” Yale University Beinecke Library.http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/cvvpw/gallery/jefferson.html (25 October 2011).
Smith, Jessie Carney. Notable Black Women. pp. 328-330. Online at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=ssMBzqrUpjwC (25 October 2011).
