Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
A persuasive map is one that is designed to make a point, that is, to alter the viewers beliefs or perhaps even spur them to action. The archetypal use of persuasive maps is for the purpose of political propaganda, such as the “Gerrymander” map, but they can address a wide range of subjects. In fact, we have handled persuasive maps in diverse fields such as advertising, moral education, social science, anti-nuclear protest, women’s suffrage, tourism, and even oil fraud!
The techniques of the persuasive mapmaker are many and varied. To give just a handful of examples: Spatial distortion can emphasize the heights of mountains to make them appear more impressive for would-be tourists. Arresting imagery can create an indelible visual metaphor for an enemy or ally. Selective coloring can emphasize a threat or, for that matter, minimize it.
But a map need not necessarily distort reality to be persuasive. Consider this map from the Civil War era, which makes use of careful shading to suggest how the pervasiveness of slavery varied across Virginia’s counties.
![HERE ARE THE KAISER’S WAR PLANS / National Security League’s Warning to Thoughtful Americans.... HOW GERMANY WANTED THE WORLD TO LOOK / A Graphic Explanation of Why There Is a War. New York: National Security League, [1917.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/BRM3220-Kaisers-War-Plans-1917_lowres-e1568037621927-150x150.jpg)
A dramatic World War One propaganda poster, published in the Fall of 1917 to prod the American public into entering the conflict. The poster features a large map with regions held or allegedly coveted by Germany colored a vivid red, suggesting a tide of blood washing over the world. Below the map 36 statements from German “leaders […]
A scarce and fascinating thematic map of San Francisco’s Chinatown issued in 1885, “at the height of the anti-Chinese hysteria in California.” (Rumsey) The map first appeared in a very large (25”h x 56”w), separately-published, and extraordinarily rare edition lithographed by Bosqui & Co. in San Francisco. This reduced edition appeared the same year in a […]
A scarce and interesting ca. 1892 Rand McNally map promoting the development of South San Francisco as a commercial, industrial and residential alternative to its sister city to the north. This striking map depicts the San Francisco Peninsula from the Golden Gate south to the edge of San Bruno, at roughly the northern boundary of […]
A very rare 1915 persuasive map promoting the cause of National Prohibition. America in its early years was awash in alcohol. Indeed, when one reads some of the statistics and anecdotes, it is difficult not to believe that the Pilgrims had a more or less continuous buzz on, Cotton Mather was half in the bag while […]
The ” Map of Man,” an extraordinarily rare example of allegorical cartography offering moral guidance on personal conduct and lifestyle, typifying a distinctive genre of persuasive map making that became especially popular in late 18th-century Britain. Even more unusual for being printed in madder (a purplish red) on a fine calico. Description The map depicts […]
![Fireworks Graphics, SUPPORT THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY & ALL NEW AFRIKAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS. [Oakland:] National Committee to Defend New Afrikan Freedom Fighters, ca. 1981.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/BRM3393-Black-Liberation-Army_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A striking ca. 1981 Black Liberation Army (BLA) propaganda poster featuring a map of the Deep South reimagined as the Republic of New Afrika. The poster features a half-length portrait of BLA member Mtayari Shabaka Sundiata, killed in 1981 in a shoot-out with police after the robbery of a Brinks armored car in Nyack, New […]
A lurid 1895 polemic exposing vice and inequality in Chicago, with the provocative title If Christ Came to Chicago and an interesting persuasive map. I quote at length from P.J. Mode’s excellent description: “W. T. Stead was a crusading social reformer and journalist, a pioneer of the British “New Journalism” tabloid press of the 1880s […]
![[William Booth], IN DARKEST ENGLAND, AND THE WAY OUT. London: International Headquarters of the Salvation Army, 1890.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BRM3557-Booth-Darkest-England_lowres-scaled-e1620653802498-150x150.jpg)
Fantastic allegorical map by Salvation Army founder William Booth (1829-1912), laying out the organization’s ambitious program for social reform. As so often, rather than reinventing the wheel I quote at length from PJ Mode: “William Booth was an evangelical preacher who founded a mission for the poor in London in 1865. In 1878, he adopted […]
An entertaining and entirely unrecorded 1987 cartographic satire offering a liberal caricature of the world according to Ronald Reagan. The map depicts the United States and Soviet Union wildly out of scale with the rest of the world. Reagan in full gunfighter regalia stands astride a hypertrophied California, while Leonid Brezhnev, teeth bared and wearing […]
![COMPAGNIE FRANCO-AMERICAINE DES NAVIRES A VAPEUR DE LA CHESAPEAKE PAR LORIENT-NORFOLK [ :] CHESAPEAK LINE COMPANY. [Paris: Malde et Renou, 1854.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BRM3419-Compagnie-Franco-Américaine-ca-1854_title_lowres-e1572271825677-150x150.jpg)
Very rare mid-19th-century French prospectus promoting investment in the Compagnie Franco-Americaine, which proposed to operate transatlantic passenger steamers between L’Orient and Norfolk, Virginia. With three seemingly unrecorded maps charting the journey from Lorient in Brittany to Norfolk, Virginia, and thence via railroad into the interior of the United States. The opening of the American West […]