New Hampshire Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Concord, Manchester, Portsmouth

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of New Hampshire 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 67 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. New Hampshire is shown here through its mountain recreation and farming, 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.

Skiing scenes are illustrated across the White Mountains, already a developing winter recreation destination by this date. Sailing scenes appear along the state's small stretch of coastline, while farming imagery fills in the rest of the state's interior. Local wildlife is scattered throughout the map alongside these recreational and agricultural scenes. Together the skiing, sailing, and farming imagery sketch a New Hampshire defined by outdoor recreation set against a still largely rural, agricultural backdrop. A handful of smaller mill towns and crossroads villages are sketched in alongside the mountain and coastal scenes, rounding out a state that was, even in 1935, still mostly small towns and farmland.

A New Hampshire family with roots in the White Mountains or its farm country 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 New Hampshire to a conventional antique survey. The store's other New England holdings include Cram's four-state 1878 sheet covering New Hampshire alongside Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts, a standard survey-style map; 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.