Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
![[ Containment Policy ] Draper Hill, [Two versions of an untitled Vietnam War-era political cartoon featuring Lyndon Johson, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara.] Probably Worcester, Mass., ca. 1865-68.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BRM2941-Draper-Hill-LBJ-cartoon_2-150x150.jpg)
A rare political cartoon by Draper Hill satirizing the United States’ Cold War-era Containment Policy, which sought to limit the expansion of Soviet communism but ended up precipitating the catastrophe of the Vietnam War. Present here in both working manuscript and printed form, enabling one to see changes from conception to the final copy. The […]
![Robert G. Ridgway, THE RECORD: THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF COUNTRIES THAT HAVE GONE COMMUNIST IN THE PAST 24 YEARS. Minneapolis: Citizens for Goldwater-Miller, [Summer-Fall] 1964.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BRM3567-The-Record_the-Following-is-a-list_composite_lowres-scaled-e1599759762811-150x150.jpg)
An unrecorded 1964 handbill issued by the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign, using a persuasive map to reinforce its argument that Democrats are soft on Communism. The election of 1964 pitted incumbent Democrat Lyndon Johnson against Republican Barry Goldwater, who ran on a deeply conservative small-government, low-tax, anti-Communism platform. Johnson, by contrast, leaned heavily on the […]
A monumental and extremely rare poster for a Japanese film celebrating the War in the Pacific. This mammoth poster and map of East Asia and the Pacific was issued to promote the Italian release of the 1958 Japanese film Battaglia del Pacifico. Produced by the Shin Toho Company and directed by Toshio Shimura, the film was […]
![[Artist’s name illegible], Bless Iceland. [Keflavik, Iceland?], May 4, 1958.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BRM3571-Bless-Iceland-1858_lowres-scaled-e1588615136952-150x150.jpg)
A delightful—and unrecorded—pictorial map commemorating an American officer’s stint in Iceland from 1959-60. The map adorns a large printed certificate, designed to be completed in the name of individual servicemen and presented to them upon their departure from Iceland. It depicts a cartoon-ish version of the country, featuring little but geysers, fish racks and volcanos, […]
![Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, PHYSIOGRAPHIC DIAGRAM ATLANTIC OCEAN SHEET 1. [New York]: Lamont Geological Observatory (Columbia University), 1957. In “C. H. Elmendorf and Bruce C. Heezen, “Oceanographic Information for Engineering Submarine Cable Systems”, The Bell System Technical Journal, vol. XXXVI no. 5 (Sept. 1957), pp. 1047-1093. The whole bound in to the 1957 volume of the Journal.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BRM3964-Bell-System-Technical-Journal_Heezen-Tharp-Atlantic-map_lowres-scaled-e1654881833482-150x150.jpg)
A revolutionary 1957 thematic map of the North Atlantic Basin by geologists Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen, which contributed greatly to acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift. The map depicts the North Atlantic Ocean and surrounding basin, including most of eastern North America, with landmasses in yellow and submerged regions in […]
![[ Red China ] Robert M. Chapin, Jr., RED CHINA. New York: TIME Inc., 1955](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BRM3709_1-Chapin-Red-China-1955-scaled-e1607531940215-150x150.jpg)
A striking map of Communist China by Robert M. Chapin, enlarged from a double-page spread in the April 18, 1955 issue of TIME. Chapin’s map uses an unusual projection, simulating an astronaut’s-eye view of China as seen from perhaps a few hundred miles over the Pacific. China is largely colored yellow—an implicit slur, perhaps?—with the […]
![[ Middle East ] Robert M. Chapin, Jr., SOUTHERN EXPOSURE. New York: TIME Inc., 1951.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BRM3709_2-Chapin-Southern-Exposure-1951_lowres-scaled-e1607539017228-150x150.jpg)
A striking 1951 map by Robert M. Chapin highlighting the Soviet threat to the oil-producing regions of South Asia and the Middle East. Chapin’s map uses an unusual projection, simulating an astronaut’s-eye view of South Asia and the Middle East as seen from perhaps a few hundred miles over the Indian Ocean. The region is […]
![[ Gulag ] [After Isaac Don Levine] / Arti Grafiche Panetto & Petrelli, CAMPI DI LAVORO FORZATO nella Russia Sovietica [:] Carta documentata, preparata per conto del Comitato Sindacati Liberi delle Nazioni Unite. Spoleto and Rome, [1951?] Accompanied by, and possibly removed from, SCHIAVISMO ROSSO [:] IL LAVORO FORZATO IN RUSSIA DOCUMENTATO ALL’ O.N.U. DALLA FEDERAZIONE AMERICANA DEL LAVORO. Firenze: Salani, 1952.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BRM3326-Campi-di-Lavoro-Forzato-1951_lowres-e1568369343582-150x150.jpg)
A powerful persuasive map documenting the extent of the Soviet Gulag system, produced with the quiet support of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Gulag was created under Lenin almost immediately after the Revolution, taking its name from an acronym of the Russian phrase for “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps.” Though estimates of its scale […]
![Edward L[indsay] Bell, WORLD STAMP CHART[:] COUNTRIES AND COLONIES LOCATED. Cambridge, Mass.: Edward L. Bell, 1948.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BRM3515-Bell-World-Stamp-Chart-1948_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A rare relic of a bygone era when stamp collecting was still a big deal. The chart features a central map of the world (ca. 8”h x 13”w), surrounded by a table listing “the locations of all countries & colonies that have or are issuing postage stamps.” Each listed location is keyed to the map […]
![[ Occupied Germany ] Printed by Karl W. Schilling (Heilbronn), BESATZUNGS-ZONEN MIT NEUEN POSTLEITGEBIETEN [:] MAP OF THE OCCUPATION AREAS [:] CARTE DES ZONES D'OCCUPATION [:] КАРТА ОККУПАЦИОННЫХ ЗОН. Frankfurt am Main: Atlanta Service, [1946].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRM3973-Occupation-Areas-Occupied-Geremany-1946-scaled-e1629646871820-150x150.jpg)
An important poster depicted occupied Germany at the end of the Second World War, with vibrant use of color belying the depressing subject matter. The map delineates allied occupation zones in Germany and Austria as they stood from 1945 until 1949, with the Russian zones pink, the American blue, the English yellow, and the French […]