Designs all over the map contribute to that humoristic
view of the United States, although the artistic interest
is mostly relegated to the margins.
moves man, so the precious metals are the basic of commercial
A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America is one
movement, and they are found located in the head” that overlays
of the most popular maps to reflect such an idea. Created in
the states of Washington and Oregon. The explanatory notes
the 1930s by Daniel K. Wallingford, it was first published by
conclude: “It is an interesting fact that in no other portion of the
Columbia University Press for the 1936 Times Book Fair; a
known world can any such analogy be found between the natural
second edition was printed for the 1937 Times Book Fair, and
and artificial channels of commerce and circulatory and digestive
the map was later redone in color in a larger format on glossy
apparatus of man.” And in fact, although the human body as
paper for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, with the inclusion in
a cartographic metaphor is certainly common in medieval and
Queens of the grounds where the fair was celebrated. The map
modern cartography, this work may be the earliest reflection of this
remained in print for years, and it was again used for the New
metaphor to North America.
York World’s Fair in 1964, with the addition of the grounds
where that event took place (plate 43). In a combination of
Despite the prominence given to this part of the world, a close
look at the map reveals that this “man of commerce” encompasses
humor, satire, and provincialism, the map illustrates the United
more than the United States, or even the North American territory;
States from the perspective of a chauvinistic New Yorker: a
it stretches and spreads all over the world (as the commercial
highly intentional distortion emphasizes a massive New York and
cartographic project intended), stepping on the British Islands,
Brooklyn area, and other parts, such as Florida or Hollywood,
Spain, and Africa and virtually touching New Guinea, Japan, and
while most of the rest of the country is irrelevant, and many of
the Kamchatka Peninsula. Therefore, the United States, through
the place names are incorrect.
West Superior, was reaching for the edges of the world.
Designs all over the map contribute to that humoristic view of the
Although we have traveled all over our country and to the edges
United States, although the artistic interest is mostly relegated to the
of the earth, and we have mapped the entire surface of the world
margins. Marginalia emphasizes New York, with representations of
and covered it with terrestrial, maritime, and aerial routes that
the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge, and compares,
let us reach any point, in our mind’s map we still locate ourselves
on the east side of the map, a busy and modern New York street,
in the center, surrounded by a marginal other, moved perhaps by
where cars drive both ways, with, to the west, a typical scene of the
the need to focus on our familiar microcosm, on our own identity,
conquest of the West, where horse carts run toward the sunset and
against the immensity of the world, or of the worlds.
cross the desert.
38