Description
The cartography is simple with only the arrival and departure cities labeled and marked by small black circles. The ocean is a monotone blue and the land is depicted in dusty brown, with mountain ranges illustrated. Various regional animals, plants, and landmarks are illustrated across the globe including a moose in North Canada, elephants in Africa, the Parthenon in Athens, and an oil rig in Saudi Arabia. The cartouche is a simple oval surrounded by a wreath. A compass rose is surrounded by two swimming dolphins and international time zones are indicated by a series a clock faces along the bottom portion of the map.
Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) formed in 1930 as a merger between Western Air Express, an airline founded in 1925, and Transcontinental Air Transport, the first airline to offer coast-to-coast service, a combination of air and rail, in 1929. The latter was nicknamed the “Lindbergh Line” after Charles Lindbergh, who had become the company’s technical advisor following his famous trans-Atlantic solo flight in 1927. After the merger, TWA continued to use the slogan and featured its connection with Lindbergh prominently in promotional materials. In October 1930, TWA was the first airline to offer all-air coast-to-coast service, with an overnight stop in Kansas City. By 1937, TWA passengers could travel from Los Angeles to New York in 16 hours. In 1950 the corporate name was changed to Trans World Airlines, keeping the acronym TWA. The airline continued to be a major passenger airline from the 1950s to the late 20th Century, but became saddled with debt and went into bankruptcy in 2001, ending all service in 2003, then under the operation of American Airlines.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall light toning, wear, handling, soft creases.
References:
“Transport: TWA Trippers.” Time Magazine. 15 November 1937. Online at Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758334,00.html (25 March 2010).(25 March 2010).
