Catalog Archive
Auction 170, Lot 289

"A New Yorker's Idea of the United States of America", Wallingford, Daniel

Subject: New York, United States

Period: 1941 (published)

Publication: Coronet Magazine

Color: Printed Color

Size:
9.3 x 6.6 inches
23.6 x 16.8 cm
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New Yorkers are known to have great pride in their city, and this humorous map perhaps best demonstrates a New Yorker's perspective of the United States, with Manhattan, Long Island, and Staten Island dominating the eastern seaboard. New York is shown as the largest state in the US, with Long Island itself depicted larger than both California and Texas. All of the states are distorted and a number of states and cities are mis-located, as they clearly are not important enough for a New Yorker to know exactly where they are. The state of Pennsylvania is called Philadelphia, with Pennsylvania noted as a city in the northwest of the state. New Orleans is shown in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are inverted, and Minneapolis and Indianapolis are noted as "Twin Cities" within Michigan. Havana is shown as a harbor in South America, just off the shore of Florida. There were several different editions of this map, this being one printed in color and published in Coronet Magazine. On verso is a bird's-eye photograph of Manhattan with parts of Queens and Brooklyn, which is described as a view of New York "from the outside looking in," in contrast to the map on verso, which is "a view from the inside looking out." Later editions included an image of the 1939 World's Fair grounds in Long Island.

References: Hornsby (Picturing America) pp. 58-59 & plate 9.

Condition: A

Issued folding with minor soiling at far left and a narrow margin at left. There are some abrasions on verso along the right side of the image.

Estimate: $140 - $170

Sold for: $120

Closed on 11/14/2018

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