Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps

In his informative introduction, Hornsby outlines the development of the cartographic form, identifies several representative artists, describes the process of creating a pictorial map, and considers the significance of the form in the history of Western cartography. This remarkable, charming volume’s glorious full­-color pictorial maps will be irresistible to any map lover or armchair traveler.. Hornsby gathers together 158 delightful pictorial jewels, most drawn from the extensive collections of the Library of Congress. More recent generations of pictorial map artists have continued that traditional mixture of whimsy and fact, combining cartographic elements with text and images and featuring bold and arresting designs, bright and cheerful colors, and lively detail.  Picturing America is the first book to showcase this vivid and popular genre of maps. Geographer Stephen J. Instructive, amusing, colorf

Beautiful, but many maps too small to see This is a gorgeous, valuable, and readable book that serves both as a well-annotated and explained reference work, but also as an entertaining general interest book. However, there is unfortunately one major, frustrating, and very disappointing flaw: the detail of nearly half the maps reproduced in this volume is so poor that it can scarcely be seen with the naked eye; a magnifying glass is needed. As the pages of this work have overly wide top, bottom, and side margins, there's simpl. "Great read but maps are too small" according to Major Robert D. Johnson. Great text - but maps are too small for a map book. Would have been better to have used the entire whitespace on the pages and/or have magnified sections.. Suroeb Reference A excellent and much-needed resource for those collecting or selling in this increasingly popular genre. High quality illustrations. He missed a couple of 2nd tier artists, but that is a small complaint given all those he noted and the numerous illustrations he chose to include.

"Hornsby’s Picturing America is a beautifully illustrated new book that documents the 'golden age' of pictorial maps, from the 1920s to the 1970s. It includes the playful (distorted views of the country from the perspective of New Yorkers, Texans and Californians); the obscure (a map of volunteer fire departments in Philadelphia, circa 1792, commissioned and drawn in 1938); and more of the obscure (a map of Michigan bakeries)."