Massachusetts Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Boston, Plymouth, Cape Cod

Ruth Taylor White drew this pictorial map of Massachusetts 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 51 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. Massachusetts is shown here through its colonial history and its textile and paper industries, the 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.

Boston is illustrated with historical sites and cultural activities befitting its status as the state's capital and cultural center. Cape Cod appears with maritime scenes emphasizing its coastal significance. The Pilgrims are represented through imagery tied to the historical settlement at Plymouth, a direct reference to the state's founding-era identity. Textile mills and paper production are illustrated as well, reflecting the industries that anchored much of the state's economy by this date. Together Boston, Cape Cod, and the Pilgrim imagery sketch a Massachusetts defined by both its colonial-era history and its more recent industrial economy.

A Massachusetts family with roots in Boston, Cape Cod, or Plymouth 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 Massachusetts to a conventional antique survey. The store's other Massachusetts editions include Morse's 1845 sheet paired with Rhode Island and the broader New England and Rogers & Johnston groupings, all 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.