Iowa Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of Iowa 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 39 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. Iowa is shown here almost entirely through its agricultural identity, cornfields and hog farming dominating the map's imagery just as they dominated the state's Depression-era economy. 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.

Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Dubuque are each marked with small illustrations tied to local industry or civic buildings. Cornfields and hog-raising scenes cover much of the state's interior, the two agricultural staples most associated with Iowa at the time. Wheat and hay fields fill in the remaining farmland, reinforcing the map's overall agricultural theme. Rivers and lakes are woven through the illustrations as well, tying the state's natural landscape to the farming imagery dominating the rest of the sheet. Together the three cities and the cornfield-and-hog imagery sketch an Iowa defined almost entirely by its farm economy.

An Iowa family with farming roots 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 Iowa to a conventional antique survey. The store's other Iowa editions include Morse's 1845 sheet and Cram's 1878 printing, 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.