Virginia Map 1935 Pictorial Print - Richmond, Monticello, Blue Ridge Mountains

Monticello and Virginia's Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields anchor the state's page in Our U.S.A. A Gay Geography, a whimsical 1935 pictorial atlas published by Little, Brown and Company of Boston, set against an inset of Virginia's mountainous western counties and figures engaged in sailing and horse racing. Frank J. Taylor wrote the atlas's text and Ruth Taylor White, who trained at the Pratt Institute of Art and the Art Students League, drew its maps, giving each state one illustrated page crowded with small drawings of industries, landmarks, and everyday scenes. Virginia anchors the South's northern edge along the Atlantic seaboard, and in 1935 its economy still leaned on tobacco, peanuts, and corn farming alongside the coal mining that powered its western counties through the Depression.

Monticello appears among the map's historical landmarks, a nod to Virginia's Revolutionary-era standing, alongside smaller illustrations of colonial architecture and battlefield sites scattered across the state. An inset detailing Virginia's mountainous western region sits apart from the main map, adding figures and scenes specific to that terrain. Tobacco, corn, and peanuts are illustrated as the state's leading crops, while coal mining marks the far west, and sailing and horse racing appear among its recreational pursuits. Figures dressed in period clothing are scattered across the page, used to mark historic sites and give the map a storytelling quality beyond plain geography. Taken together, the page balances Virginia's colonial history against the working landscape of its 1930s farms and coalfields.

Family ties to the Piedmont or the Blue Ridge make this an easy pick, and so does simply having settled elsewhere while still claiming the Old Dominion, or working through this whimsical 1935 series one state at a time as a collector. Its lively illustrated style turns Virginia's history and industry into a genuinely decorative piece rather than a plain reference map, worth a second look for the small details tucked into its corners. It is available unframed in a range of sizes, from a compact print for a hallway to a larger piece for a study or library.