{"id":19334,"date":"2018-01-23T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/?post_type=product&p=19334"},"modified":"2025-03-10T15:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T19:54:13","slug":"map-united-states-pictorial-new-yorkers-idea-bostonians-idea-wallingford-pair-vintage-prints-c-1930s","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/product\/map-united-states-pictorial-new-yorkers-idea-bostonians-idea-wallingford-pair-vintage-prints-c-1930s\/","title":{"rendered":"Map, United States, Pictorial, New Yorker’s Idea, Bostonian’s Idea, Wallingford, Pair, Vintage Prints, c. 1930s (Sold)"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Yorker’s Idea<\/strong> shows New York State in oversized proportion to the entire country. A text box in the upper left corner presents the concept: “The City of New York is unique — it is a nation within a NATION. Its inhabitants, of which there are some 7,000,000, are called NEW YORKERS. This MAP is presented, after patient research, as a composite of the NEW YORKERS’ ideas concerning THE UNITED STATES\u2026\u201d In the map, place names throughout the other states are often incorrect or fictitious, satirizing a New Yorker\u2019s lack of knowledge and interest in other parts of the country. For example, Minneapolis and Indianapolis are humorously shown together in Michigan as \u201cThe Twin Cities,\u201d and the Southeast is dominated by an oversized Florida (where New Yorker’s vacation or retire), with four rivers in Florida all labeled “Swanee River.” Moreover,\u00a0 California is divided in thirds consisting of San Francisco, California and Hollywood and other geography shows similar inaccuracies and distorted proportions throughout the country. The map is in the Art Deco taste, with additional details such as ships in the oceans, and various views and images in the borders such as the Empire State Building and a Fifth Avenue Coach bus.<\/p>\n

Bostonian’s Idea<\/strong> depicts the outsized importance of New England relative to the entire country. Indeed, the eastern half of Massachusetts, including Boston and Cape Cod, are drawn at even larger proportions. The importance of Cape Cod is also emphasized by the inclusion of an image of a codfish over the cartouche. The remainder of U.S. geography reflects the Bostonian\u2019s lack of knowledge and interest in other parts of the country, with the Midwest a vast void labeled \u201cWestern Prairies\u201d and \u201cTexas,\u201d and a few cities clustered around very small Great Lakes and Mississippi River. In the Midwest, Omaha, Denver, Reno and Houston are incongruously placed near the Pacific Coast lumped together into a generic American West dominated by California. The Mid Atlantic and South are also blank except for Florida and a few major cities with concentrations of affluent, high society families such as Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond and Palm Beach. An inset map of \u201cBoston and Environs\u201d shows various actual suburbs along with six variations on the prestigious address of \u201cNewton,\u201d and several satirical inscriptions that purport to explain this and other notions held by wealthy Bostonians. Other notes on the map also suggest that certain members of the social elite consider themselves as the only true Bostonians.<\/p>\n

Publication Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel K. Wallingford created, copyrighted and sometimes self-published A New Yorker\u2019s Idea of the United States of America, <\/strong>and This Map Presents a Bostonian\u2019s Idea of the United States of America<\/strong>. Each of these two famous pictorial maps shows the United States from a humorous and satirical local perspective. <\/strong>The maps have been variously issued over an extended period of time, starting in the mid 1930s, in a complex publication and reissue history that is not yet fully known or documented. This is complicated by the fact that the maps rarely have a date imprinted on them.<\/p>\n

Some information on early publications can be gleaned from an extant letter in the Rumsey Collection, dated September 2, 1935, from Daniel K. Wallingford, 119 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston to a Mrs. G.W. Wade. The letter promoted the sale of “a revised edition” of A New Yorker’s Idea,<\/strong> available in three sizes, 8.5 x 6.5 inches, 12.5 x 10 inches, and 20 x 15 inches. The larger size, it was stated, was available mounted on board, hand colored and varnished. Accordingly, it can be concluded that A New Yorker’s Idea<\/strong> was issued 1935 or earlier. Another way to date the maps is whether the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940) is indicated on A New Yorker’s Idea<\/strong> or not. For example, on an extant medium-size example of this map, with address indicated at 222 Marlboro Street, Boston, the Fair is not shown indicating a date before 1939. The only known date on any of these maps is text printed on the back of an example of A New Yorker’s Idea<\/strong> published as a promotional item by the Columbia University Press; it states that the map was published as a “reissue” in 1937 due to its popularity the prior year.<\/p>\n

Different issues of both maps are known with a variety of different addresses for Wallingford, though their sequence and dates associated with any one address are unknown. Extant examples of both maps also are known that bear the imprint of the Columbia University Bookstore, New York, instead of Wallingford’s name. There are other editions as well, such as Bostonian\u2019s Idea<\/strong>\u00a0 published in color by Margaret G. Wallingford — presumably a successor to the rights to the map — in Chicago, in the early 1960s Alternate versions of these maps were also later redone by apparently unrelated publishers in different sizes and formats; it is not known whether these were authorized editions.<\/p>\n

The offered pair of maps bear the address of Wallingford at 222 Marlboro Street, and as such are relatively early issues of the maps (before the addition of the 1939 World’s Fair to A New Yorker’s Idea<\/strong>).\u00a0 Furthermore, they are rare to locate as a pair.<\/p>\n

Condition: Each recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with only light remaining toning, wear, handling. Center vertical fold on each, as issued.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

\u201cA Bostonian’s Idea of the United States of America.\u201d\u00a0 Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.<\/em>\u00a0 http:\/\/maps.bpl.org\/details_10494\/ (21 July 2009).<\/p>\n

Harmon, Katharine. You Are Here<\/em>. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004, p. 102 (illustrating a colored version of A New Yorker’s Idea<\/em> from the collection of George Glazer Gallery).<\/p>\n

“Letter and Ad: From D.K. Wallingford, advertising various size prints and costs of the map…” David Rumsey Map Collection.<\/em> 2018.
\nhttps:\/\/www.davidrumsey.com\/luna\/servlet\/detail\/RUMSEY~8~1~290267~90061919:Letter-and-Ad–From-D-K–Wallingfor (22 January 2018).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel K. Wallingford
\n A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America<\/strong>
\nThis Map Presents a Bostonian\u2019s Idea of the United States of America<\/strong>
\nDaniel K. Wallingford, 222 Marlboro Street, Boston, Massachusetts, mid 1930s to 1940s
\nPrints, uncolored
\n7 x 9.5 inches ruled border (approximate)
\n9.5 x 12.25 inches overall (approximate)<\/p>\n

This item is sold. It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.<\/p>\n