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Map, Ireland, Story Map of Ireland, Vintage Print, 1930s

$450

Story Map of Ireland
Colortext Publications, Inc., Chicago: 1936
Color process print
17 x 13.5 inches
$450

A detailed and colorful pictorial map of Ireland, filled with drawings of historic sites, incidents and portraits of important Irish men and women, including explanatory captions. Insofar as there is so much historical information, geography is kept simple to major rivers and other bodies of water, counties, cities and towns. There are ships in the oceans — both historic vessels and others left uncaptioned — and whimsical touches on the mainland such as a leprechaun. The seas also contain groups of portraits: “Dublin’s Sons,” “Irish Patriots,” and “Modern Bards.” In the lower right corner, another such group, “Erin’s Heroes,” are blessed by a Roman Catholic bishop standing before a Gothic window. The map is surrounded by an intricate border design and title decorations, which a caption in the lower right margin explains were adapted from two famous Celtic illuminated manuscripts, the Book of Kells (6th century) and the Book of Macdurnan (10th century).

Product description continues below.

Description

Colortext Publications published educational books and pictorial maps in the second quarter of the 20th century. A series of “Story Maps” were published between 1935 and 1950, including maps of Europe, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Mexico, the United States and the West Indies. Colortext also published maps of France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland during this period by the cartographer and illustrator Ernest Dudley Chase and a map of Kentucky for the H.E. Pogue Distillery. In addition to Chase, Colortext maps were drawn by Egbert G. Jacobson, Julio de Diego, A. Walker and W.E. Vogelear. Apparently these maps were intended to engage and educate American youth. In addition, the firm published illustrated booklets about history for children in connection with the Chicago World’s Fair Century of Progress Exhibition in 1933 and 1934, and maps of Chicago (1938) and a Military Panoramap of the Theatre of War (1940) showing the European theater of World War II.

Condition: Generally fine with only minor light toning, wear, soft creases. Copyright information lower left gives the date as 1935; the “5” apparently was overwritten as a “6,” and printed as such.

References:

Clinton, Craig. “Colortext Maps of the 1930s.” Old Imprints. http://www.oldimprints.com/collecting-colortext-maps-of-the-1930s.php (22 June 2015).

“Colortext Publications.” OCLC WorldCat. http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AColortext+Publications+Inc.&dblist=638&fq=ap%3A%22colortext+publications+inc%22&qt=facet_ap%3A (22 June 2015).

Additional information

Century

20th Century