Rhode Island Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Providence, Newport, Woonsocket

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of Rhode Island 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 91 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. Rhode Island is shown here through its coastal and agricultural heritage, the smallest state in the country covered in the same dense illustrative style as its much larger neighbors. 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.

Providence, Newport, and Woonsocket are all marked among the state's principal towns, each with its own small illustration. Sailing and fishing scenes fill the map's coastal areas, reflecting Rhode Island's long maritime tradition centered on Narragansett Bay. Farming imagery rounds out the state's rural interior, a reminder that the state's economy extended beyond its famous coastline. Together the three towns and the sailing and farming scenes sketch a Rhode Island defined by its coastal heritage and its small, densely packed geography. A handful of smaller coastal villages are sketched in alongside Providence, Newport, and Woonsocket, rounding out a state whose economy and identity were both built almost entirely around Narragansett Bay.

A Rhode Island family with roots in Newport or Providence 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 Rhode Island to a conventional antique survey. The store's other Rhode Island editions include Morse's 1845 sheet paired with Massachusetts and the broader New England groupings, 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.