Description
This map is apparently quite rare. The Oregon State University Libraries archives lists a copy of a map by Doris Wildman called Early Exploration of State of Oregon and dated 1929, but no image is available online. It may be this map or a related one. Indeed, the Art Deco stylizations of the illustrations and lettering of this map are consistent with that time period.
In the upper right corner of the map is a poem by Edwin Markham (1852-1940), founder of the Poetry Society of America in 1910 and Oregon’s first poet laureate (1923-1931):
Gladly we turn our gaze,
Oregon, Oregon,
Turn again to the dauntless days,
Your hero world,
Where the Pioneer axes rang,
Where the wistful mothers sang
Whatever the pain or pang;
While over them all the eagles whirled,
Oregon,
Over the whitened summits whirled.
Doris Wildman, the designer of the map, is mentioned in an article in the Oregon Historical Society as the designer of a commemorative tablet dedicated to the British explorer who “discovered” the Columbia River in 1792. The article reports that the tablet was installed in 1929 in a ceremony attended by American and British dignitaries and was funded by an expenditure of $150 by the Oregon legislature. A Doris L. Wildman, born 1902, is listed in the 1940 U.S. census records for Portland, Oregon, as living in a home with her parents and brother. She is also listed as a part-time supplies clerk employed in the 1929-1930 Annual Report of the Library Association of Portland, Oregon. Given those connections to the art of design, the historical society, and the library, it seems likely that this Doris Wildman is the person who designed this map.
The American Association of University Women was founded nationally as the American Association of Collegiate Alumni in 1881. In 1905, a Portland branch was established and in 1923 national AAUW convention was held in Portland. It is likely the Portland branch that published this map, just as in the same general time period (around 1930), the Spokane, Washington, branch of AAUW published a map of Washington State by artist Bertha Ballou.
Full publication information: Copyright by American Association of University Women.
Condition: Generally very good, paper uniformly toned tan, almost certainly as issued, with the usual light handling and wear. Minor dampstain lower left margin, not affecting image.
References:
Armitage, Susan, Shawna Gandy and Jeffrey A. Hayes. “American Association of University Women Portland Branch Records, 1905-2007.” Archives West. 2016. http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv19567#caID (1 May 2020).
“Doris L Wildman in the 1940 Census.” Ancestry.com. 1997-2020. https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Oregon/Doris-L-Wildman_2bbnbz (30 April 2020).
“Edwin Markham.” Oregon Encyclopedia. 17 March 2018. https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/markham_edwin_1852_1940_/ (1 May 2020).
“News and Comment.” Oregon Historical Society. Vol. 30, No. 3. September 1929. pp. 288-289. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20610492 (30 April 2020).
Sixty-Seventh Annual Report. Portland: Library Association of Portland, Oregon, 1930. p. 21.
“State of Oregon Maps Collection, 1866-2000.” Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives. http://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/findingaids/?p=collections/findingaid&id=2106 (30 April 2020).
