Mississippi Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Jackson, Biloxi, Natchez

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of Mississippi for Our U.S.A., A Gay Geography, a whimsical cartoon atlas published by Little, Brown, and Company in 1935 with text by Frank J. Taylor, covering all 48 states in fifty-eight full-color illustrated sheets. This sheet appears on page 57 of the atlas, printed in bright lithographed color and filled with small hand-drawn scenes rather than any conventional survey detail, a style built to entertain a Depression-era audience as much as inform it. Mississippi is shown here through its agriculture and its namesake river, the two identities that most defined the state's popular image in the 1930s. Ruth Taylor White and Frank Taylor built the atlas as a joint effort, her illustrations paired with his short, wry captions, and the finished sheets sold well enough during the Depression that Little, Brown kept the title in print for several years after its first release.

Cotton and corn fields are illustrated across the state's farmland, the crops that had anchored Mississippi's economy since well before this map was drawn. The Mississippi River is shown running along the state's western edge, its historic importance to trade and transportation reflected in the map's imagery of the riverboat era. Lumbering scenes appear in the state's forested regions, representing an industry that had grown alongside agriculture by the 1930s. Local wildlife and geographical features round out the map's depiction of the state's landscape. Together the cotton fields, the river, and the lumber camps sketch a Mississippi defined by farming, water, and timber.

A Mississippi family with roots along the river or in the state's cotton counties will recognize this map's take on the state immediately, and it makes a distinctive gift for anyone who prefers a whimsical, Depression-era view of Mississippi to a conventional antique survey. The store's other Mississippi editions include Rogers & Johnston's 1857 sheet paired with Louisiana and Cram's 1878 printing paired with Alabama, both standard survey-style cartography; this 1935 Little, Brown sheet is the only pictorial, cartoon-style map of the state the collection carries. It's printed unframed and available in a range of sizes to fit whatever wall it's headed for.