Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
A striking 1943 poster depicting options for Allied offensives against the Axis, drawn by Robert M. Chapin for Time magazine. The poster features side-by-side maps of the European and Asia-Pacific Theatres on a stereographic projection, giving the viewer the sense of seeing the Earth from space. The theatres of war are, in a sense, carved […]
![[Title of recto translating to “Vietnam in Battle” / title of verso translating to “The Power of People’s War is Incomparable; The Tet Offensive Victory is Earth-Shaking.”]. Beijing: Ditu chubanshe (Cartographic Publishing House), distributed by Xinhua shudian, February 1968.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BRM3612-Fighting-Vietnam-1968_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A Communist Chinese propaganda poster featuring two persuasive maps of Vietnam and touting the supposed success of the Tet Offensive. Published in February 1968 during or just after the Offensive. Launched on January 30, 1968 by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) acting in coordination, the Tet Offensive was a massive surprise […]
![Bruno / Imp. Paul Dupont, LIRE LA BASTILLE Journal Hebdomadaire Illustré ANTIMAÇONNIQUE [“Read La Bastille, the Illustrated Weekly Anti-Masonic Newspaper”]. Paris: [Paul] Copin-Albancelli, ND [but ca. 1906].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BRM3157-Bruno-La-Bastille-ca-1906_lowres-e1538741005186-150x150.jpg)
A spectacular albeit noxious French persuasive map using the octopus motif to promote anti-Semitism and anti-Freemasonry. As in other European nations, French anti-Semitism has a long history, most famously manifesting itself in the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s and collaboration with Nazi deportation of Jews during the Second World War. In the public mind, Jews were […]
![R[obert] M[acfarlane] Chapin, Jr., THREE-WAY DOOM. [New York:] Time, Inc., April 2, 1945 [but a bit later.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BRM2943A-Chapin-Three-Way-Doom-1945_lowres-e1568144898268-150x150.jpg)
A striking poster published in the waning months of the Second World War, showing what was left of the Japanese Empire being decimated by American bombers attacking from three directions. The map is a much-enlarged version of one printed in the April 2, issue of Time magazine. Mapmaker Robert M. Chapin (fl. 1937-1970), Chief Cartographer […]
![[ OSPAAAL ] [René] Mederos, [Untitled propaganda poster attacking President Nixon’s policies in Southeast Asia.] [Havana]: Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America, 1971.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/BRM3884-Nixon-as-vulture-1971_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A rare and haunting propaganda map attacking Nixon Administration policies in Indochina, published at the height of the Vietnam War by OSPAAAL, a Cuba-based organization promoting solidarity between the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The poster features a map of Southeast Asia, with North Vietnam and Laos overprinted blood-red and shown in the […]
![Maurice Neumont / P.J. Gallais et Cie., Edit. Imp., En 1788 MIRABEAU disait deja : LA GUERRE est l’industrie Nationale de la PRUSSE [“Already in 1788 Mirabeau was saying: War is the national industry of Prussia.”] Paris, [1917.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM3908-Neumont-La-Guerre...Prusse-1914_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A brilliantly-designed and brutally-effective First World War propaganda map by Maurice Neumont, comparing Germany to a monstrous octopus threatening Europe. Germany is shown in different shadings of red, indicating its numerous annexations of surrounding territory since 1740, the most recent being the 1871 seizure of Alsace-Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian War. Sprawled across Germany is a […]
![U.S. Government Printing Office, [Nav War Maps 1 through 6.] Washington, D.C.: Navy Department, 1944.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/BRM3308-Nav-War-Map-No-1-Mediterranean_lowres-e1568215297699-150x150.jpg)
A mammoth and colorful “Nav War Map” of the Mediterranean issued by the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II. This impressive, separately-published propaganda map was produced in 1944 to highlight the strategic importance of the Mediterranean, which “offers many approaches to Fortress Europe.” It also emphasizes Allied successes there during the Second […]
![Make good the promise [:] SECOND WAR FUND One Hundred Million Dollars MAY 20th-27th. [New York?: American Red Cross, 1918.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BRM4381-Make-Good-the-Promise-1918_lowres-scaled-e1685971793889-150x150.jpg)
A mammoth, vibrant and apparently very effective American Red Cross poster exhorting citizens to contribute to its Second War Fund drive in May 1918. The poster features an outline map of northeastern North America, the Atlantic and northern Europe. The continents are linked by a vibrant rainbow originating in an American pot of gold—bearing the […]
![[ 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 […]
![Earl Purdy / Division of Information Federal Public Works Administration, PWA REBUILDS THE NATION. Washington, D.C.: Public Works Administration, [1935-39?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/BRM4363-PWA-Rebuilds-the-Nation_lowres-scaled-e1682096866174-150x150.jpg)
A delightful Depression-era propaganda map issued by Federal Government to promote the contributions of the Public Works Administration, one of the major programs in FDR’s New Deal. The PWA was established by the 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act and was tasked with spending billions on major public construction projects to generate employment and help stabilize […]