Washington D.C. Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Capitol Hill, Georgetown, National Mall

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of the District of Columbia 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 plus the nation's capital in fifty-eight full-color illustrated sheets. This sheet appears on page 25 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. Washington is shown here through its three most iconic federal landmarks, rendered in the same stylized, caricatured manner used across the rest of the atlas. 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.

The Capitol Building anchors the map as the seat of Congress, illustrated in a simplified, stylized form typical of the atlas's cartoon approach. The White House and the Washington Monument are both marked nearby, the second and third of the capital's most recognizable landmarks. The Potomac River is shown running through the district, its roads and bridges sketched in around the three federal buildings. Together the Capitol, the White House, and the Monument sketch a capital defined almost entirely by its government architecture rather than by any local industry or agriculture.

A family with Washington roots, whether through government service or simply growing up in the district, will recognize this map's take on the capital immediately, and it makes a distinctive gift for anyone who prefers a whimsical, Depression-era view of the city to a conventional antique survey. The store's other District of Columbia holdings are standard 19th-century survey maps; this 1935 Little, Brown sheet is the only pictorial, cartoon-style map of the capital the collection carries. It's printed unframed and available in a range of sizes to fit whatever wall it's headed for.