Comments on: Map of the USA

Map of the USA

ronsens — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:01:09 -0800

I found this beautiful map in my parent's house and thought I might share it.It was issued by the Secretary of State and handed out to Germans I believe in the late fifties or early sixties.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:05:25 -0800

Very neat! I'm next to the giant armchair.

By: devbrain

devbrain — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:06:11 -0800

Hey! I can see my house from here!!

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:06:50 -0800

Appears to be pre-1959 since Alaska and Hawaii aren't shown. What a neat map, though!

By: fenriq

fenriq — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:08:14 -0800

I dig this kinds of map, I'm next to a big old fish in the Monterey Bay!

By: xammerboy

xammerboy — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:09:37 -0800

A self link! Kidding. This is very cool. Wish I cold see it larger.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:13:06 -0800

Am I the only one who can't get the link to work? I wanna see!

By: modernsquid

modernsquid — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:21:38 -0800

it gives me a headache to think of how long someone spent drawing all of that.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:24:31 -0800

I love this map. But... a 7mb jpg??

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:25:38 -0800

Very neat! I'm next to the giant armchair. me too!

By: howling fantods

howling fantods — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:27:39 -0800

But... a 7mb jpg?? at 2500x1784, image sizes get um... large ;)

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:28:16 -0800

Oooo, when I was a kid we had a jigsaw puzzle that was just the Ohio portion of (I think) this very map. Neat-o.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:28:43 -0800

The population number they give (155 million) is the one for 1951, as another data point. It's cute how little notice Las Vegas gets on this map.

By: kimota

kimota — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:30:05 -0800

Very cool. And, from now on, I won't be taking I75 or I40. Instead, it's the Eisenbahn!

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:31:46 -0800

The only illustration Maryland gets is... some guy. I feel cheated. He looks military, though, so maybe he represents the Naval Academy?

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:34:04 -0800

There's also a coal miner in Western Maryland.

By: borkingchikapa

borkingchikapa — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:35:36 -0800

Can anyone mirror this somewhere? I can't seem to load it.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:35:39 -0800

That's absolutely amazing. Beautiful. Thank you. Eisenbahn--as in, Eisenhower's Freeway System? That's a good data point, too (though not nearly as referential as the population)

By: loquax

loquax — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:38:56 -0800

Eisenbahn = railway

By: scruss

scruss — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:40:05 -0800

borkingchikapa, it's now mirrored on Coral: http://www.iustus.de.nyud.net:8090/map/

By: heimchen

heimchen — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:43:58 -0800

roland, du bist ein schatz

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:46:04 -0800

I love stuff like this. I have a soviet military map of northern New England, and it gives me a kick to look at my home city labeled as.

By: whatnot

whatnot — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:46:07 -0800

greetings from Univers Von Texas! The three minimaps across the bottom, are those rail/communications/highways? or is the second one typical flight patterns?

By: heimchen

heimchen — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:49:12 -0800

yes, the second is flight pattern.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:49:56 -0800

Me: ...this very map. Actually, I think it was a different one now that I look closer. But a similar idea...

By: kamylyon

kamylyon — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:52:23 -0800

waaaahhh! teh link is borken anyone got a mirror?

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:52:55 -0800

They spelled Pittsburgh wrong! No 'h'.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:54:02 -0800

That is simply great, thank you. I actually collect maps done in that style. I don't know what you call it, "Maps With Zillions of Little Pictures in Each State." I've got a wonderful similar one done by Humble from 1962, its hanging on my wall and never fails as a conversation piece.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:56:21 -0800

Oh man, I want one of these! Great find. :)

By: fenriq

fenriq — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:00:04 -0800

Mayor Curley, would you mind looking up Norwich, Vermont on your map? That's my old hometown, I'm curious what them Soviets made of it.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:05:38 -0800

The page cannot be displayed

By: fake

fake — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:07:59 -0800

Mayor Curley- maybe you'd just scan it and post it?

By: thirdparty

thirdparty — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:10:11 -0800

So the State Dept. handed out these maps to give Germans some idea of what the US looked like? I'm interested in their intentions, and the history behind this map give-away. I like that Walt Whitman's birthplace is identified on Long Island.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:13:35 -0800

"KANADA"???

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:16:15 -0800

I want to see some landmarks for Kanada!!

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:16:29 -0800

Card Cheat, you beat me to it!

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:16:34 -0800

Anyone have a 5-foot wide color printer I can borrow for this?

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:16:46 -0800

Fabulous! No red states and no blue states! Oh, wait... That was then...

By: St.Pudalia

St.Pudalia — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:22:06 -0800

Keen! I LOVE this! It was my dream as a child to illustrate maps like this.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:29:23 -0800

Diesen Vereinigten Staaten (von Amerika), sie vibrieren?

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:32:34 -0800

Is that a picture of a ladies' shoe on the border between MA and NH? And again in upstate NY?

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:37:02 -0800

That designates either shoe manufacturers or cross dressers. Somebody needs to do a map like this for the USA as we are today.

By: mudpuppie

mudpuppie — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:44:13 -0800

Damn. Lotta Wolfram in the US of A. Who knew?

By: Rawhide

Rawhide — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:45:26 -0800

It looks like the Statue of Liberty is trying to make a break for Germany over there. She is 100+ miles off shore and steaming for Hamburg, I tell you!

By: i_cola

i_cola — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:49:39 -0800

Orlando, FL gets nada. Them were't days... Well, if you like maps with lots of stuff all over 'em you want to check out the ones at White Mountain Puzzles. I picked up their Key West one (half price at the Hemmingway House!) last week.

By: donp17

donp17 — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:51:26 -0800

I have a similar map that I picked up a garage sale from about the same era. it's a map of the US for sports fishermen that shows various fish jumping all over the country.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:51:33 -0800

I would love to scan the map, but I should have done that before I had it framed. And Norwich, Vermont didn't make it onto the map. It goes from P-Town to midcoast Maine and as far west as Lake Winnepesaukee, which is unlabeled. I think the russian cartographer just looked at the name and shrugged.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:54:25 -0800

Maybe someone could d/l the whole thing, then slice it up into the 50 states, with a small imagemapped whole-US as a menu...

By: Juicylicious

Juicylicious — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:00:02 -0800

I'm right on the flour mills, right below the Ricer and not far above the Mayo Klenik.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:03:48 -0800

Spiffilicious. I, too, love the "maps with little pictograms depicting things of interest" and wish there were a word for that category of thing. What do you mean "shoe manufacturers OR cross-dressers", stupidsexyFlanders? New England has a proud tradition of both.

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:06:44 -0800

Wow.

By: jefbla

jefbla — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:09:52 -0800

I had no idea that my part of the country was known for hickory nuts.

By: NoMich

NoMich — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:12:23 -0800

I picked up their Key West one (half price at the Hemmingway House!) last week. Hey, I walked past the Hemingway House last week. And that's a nice link to those cool puzzles. I love the Mackinac Island one. In fact, I desire it.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:14:03 -0800

Mayor Curley, I should have figured as much, its a blink of a town now, I can't imagine how wee it must have been back then. Thanks for checking. So, does anyone know what the purpose of the map was? Or did I miss it?

By: litghost

litghost — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:16:41 -0800

For those having trouble getting the big image, try saving it, instead of just clicking on it. Very neat.

By: kamylyon

kamylyon — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:19:37 -0800

I remember this map! ::delves into the deepest recesses of memory:: It was in the library of the teacher's college up the hill from the elementary school I went to in Johnson, VT. :notes that the mirror was there before she asked for one and slinks into her corner:

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:27:05 -0800

What would be the best way to print this out as a poster?

By: heimchen

heimchen — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:31:08 -0800

well, smackfu suggests that the map is from around 1951. There was only a vague image of the United States in Germany then. For many Germans Americans were huge, well-fed guys handing out chewing gums to German post-war kids. And some of these guys even were black. (I remember my grandmother telling me how amazed she was when she saw the first black G.I., the first black person she ever saw.) Now imagine what people must have thought of the United States then. Of course they knew about cowboys, the Liberty Statue and so on but that was about it. I think the map was supposed to give a somewhat more detailed look an the United States, but then again not too sophisticated. The Secretary of State probably imagined that Germans would be overwhelmed otherwise. Maybe they really would have been. I assume that's why it's designed like a children's map. Then again, in the early fifties Germans started to go on holiday again. So it might be a promotional map for the American tourist industry. That's what I can think of.

By: Democritus

Democritus — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:32:23 -0800

Anyone have a 5-foot wide color printer I can borrow for this? Kinkos can print things like this. I just had a huge picture printed(and laminated) as a backing for my fish tank. I'm sure they could do the same with this picture. Too bad it's not higher resolution or I'd do it myself. Also, what's up with "Stiller Ozean"? I recognize a lot of the German(ized) words on there but I've never head "Stiller" for "Pacific" before.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:48:30 -0800

Kinko's does indeed have the printers, but many of their stores are pretty draconian about what they will do because of copyright laws. Stiller means "more peaceful" or "more calm" in German. Pacific comes from the root "pax" where we get "pacifism", or other words related to "peaceful."

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:52:14 -0800

octothorpe:

They spelled Pittsburgh wrong! No 'h'.

Actually, there has been controversy over how to spell Pittsburg(h). In First Report of the United States Board on Geographic Names 1890-1891, the Feds recommended dropping the "h" in all "burgh" names and Pittsburgh has been at various times and by various people not spelled with an "h".

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:04:29 -0800

Also, what's up with "Stiller Ozean"? Democritus, that's "Silent Ocean," literally. It's called that in Dutch as well ("Stille Oceaan"). Pretty close in meaning. The English name derives from French. OT: In other news, leading Dutch toy store Bart Smit has withdrawn a certain model of globe from the shops after it emerged that "Israel" was replaced with "Palestine" and Taiwan suddenly belonged to China. It was manufactured in China, so apparently one of the design people there decided to have some fun.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:05:55 -0800

sourwookie beat me to it.

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:08:43 -0800

It's a German map. They are notoriously bad at spelling place names. They think "Germany" is spelled "Deutschland," for instance.

By: insomnia_lj

insomnia_lj — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:22:38 -0800

They moved Stanford down the peninsula to Sunnyvale and put San Jose in the East Bay. Apparently, the Golden Gate Bridge was in the way!

By: smackfu

smackfu — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:26:06 -0800

And UPenn is in New Jersey, near Atlantic City.

By: goddam

goddam — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:30:51 -0800

i'm in the vicinity of the erlenmeyer flask. guess if they updated it they could just put a needle there instead.

By: redneck_zionist

redneck_zionist — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:36:42 -0800

Reminded me of maps from the 1960 edition of the 16-volume Golden Book Encyclopedia. Sold at supermarkets. Contains individual maps of all the states. Map of Wyoming.

By: plebmaster

plebmaster — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:05:47 -0800

Have you closet cartographers seen the David Rumsey collection? For me, this is still the most impressive collection of maps on the internet machine.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:15:54 -0800

Reminded me of maps from the 1960 edition of the 16-volume Golden Book Encyclopedia. Sold at supermarkets. Also available at library book sales for $1 a set. I got me one, childhood memories, a general interest in older children's reference books (and the maps of course) justified that purchase. Now if I just had somewhere to put them, along with my what may be complete collection of American Heritage Junior Library books and my growing collection of Landmark Books.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:28:49 -0800

Yes, 155 million corresponds to 1951-52. Besides, the cars and airplanes depicted are consistent with that time. And a pre-1965 Canadian flag is shown.

By: WestCoaster

WestCoaster — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:50:27 -0800

I love Raven maps - primarily topographical/relief, available for each state, gorgeous.

By: shepd

shepd — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 17:10:58 -0800

Tough to tell, but it looks like Canada has the old Red Ensign! Woohoo! It could be the Ontario flag, but tough to tell, again.

By: Frank Grimes

Frank Grimes — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 19:52:28 -0800

Apparently Germany and Mississippi did not get the news about the Emancipation Proclamation. Is that a German U-Boat off the tip of Long Island?

By: RalphSlate

RalphSlate — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:21:56 -0800

Did anyone else notice that many cities are defined by the products they were known for? I live in Springfield MA. We had the US Armory, hence the Springfield Rifle pictured. Hartford CT is pictured with an aircraft, most likely for Pratt & Whitney. Albany is pictured with a light bulb, to represent General Electric. Steel mills in Pittsburgh, textiles in the Carolinas, Cars in Michigan, and even a large chair in Grand Rapids (the furniture city). Does anyone else find it sad that such a map would be largely barren today?

By: kimota

kimota — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:35:41 -0800

>Eisenbahn = railway Damn. Real life continues to disappoint.

By: t r a c y

t r a c y — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:02:12 -0800

wow that's fabtastic, i love it ! neat find. "KANADA"??? hmm. well since canada is really spelled kanata, maybe their spelling is related to that somehow - not that it's any less incorrect that way - or to german spelling, do they have a preference for k over c...?

By: heimchen

heimchen — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:59:11 -0800

there are only a few German words starting with a 'c'.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 16:42:28 -0800

great username, heimchen!

By: goddam

goddam — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 21:37:59 -0800

Is that a German U-Boat off the tip of Long Island? don't know if one was found off of long island but u869 was found off the coast of jersey.