1913 Topographical Auto Road Map Co. Pictorial View of San Francisco Bay Area

This is a chromolithograph pictorial bird's eye view of the San Francisco Bay Area prepared in 1913 by the Topographical Automobile Road Map Company and printed by H.C. Madison for the insurance company Aetna. Marking the dawn of the automobile revolution, this view underscores how automobiles, while still expensive, not-entirely-reliable, and limited by both their own engines and the existing road network, could make previously long and tortuous journeys quick and accessible.

A Closer Look

This view is a fascinating look into the early development of automobile roads and automotive culture in America, and specifically California. Oriented towards the east, the view covers from Mt. Shasta in the north to Monterey Bay in the south, and extends as far inland as Lake Tahoe, Reno, and the Sierra Nevada. Symbols mark hotels, historic missions (a major historical curiosity in California at the time), 'scenic wonders,' and highways, including 'Lincoln Highways' (the plural name and multiple roads reflecting the still-evolving terminology and route of the newly-conceived highway, discussed below). Other roads, cities and towns, waterways, and additional features are noted throughout. The verso includes a list of accommodations, garages, cities, and tourist attractions in the region, as well as suggested itineraries for eleven trips, from brief local jaunts within the limits of San Francisco to multi-day treks to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite.

The view and verso text also chart the development of an entire economy associated with automobiles - hotels catering to motorists, mechanics, gas stations, auto ferries - that had only recently emerged.

The Lincoln Highway

The idea for the Lincoln Highway was originally conceived and promoted by Carl Graham Fisher, an early automobile entrepreneur who manufactured Prest-O-Lite carbide gas headlights. An early racecar enthusiast and one of the principal investors of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he first presented the idea of a transcontinental highway to friends in the automobile industry and estimated the cost at $10 million. Within a month he had raised the first $1 million. At first, the name Lincoln Highway was not available, as a group of Easterners was seeking federal support to build a Lincoln Highway from Washington to Gettysburg, but that project never gained enough support to get off the ground. So, Fisher first called his project 'The Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway' or 'The Ocean-to-Ocean Highway', but quickly claimed the name Lincoln Highway once it became available.

Established on July 1, 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association began work on establishing a highway from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The relatively dense road network east of the Mississippi River made route selection in that part of the country fairly easy. When it came to the western route, however, the Association elected to send a 'Trail-Blazer' tour of seventeen cars and two trucks to scout out the best routes from Indianapolis to San Francisco, where they arrived after a thirty-four-day journey. The 3,389-mile route was announced on September 14, 1913, but as non-improved segments of this first route were improved over time, the route was reduced by 250 miles.

The Lincoln Highway only bore this name until the national highway numbering system came into effect in November 1926. With the advent of this system, the Lincoln Highway was split into several different segments known by different numerical designations, and the name Lincoln Highway began to fall out of use. It would not be until the 1990s that a movement began 'to identify, preserve, and improve access to the remaining portions of the Lincoln Highway and its associated historic sites'. A marker and explanatory sign now indicate the western terminus of the former highway across from the Legion of Honor near the Pacific Coast in San Francisco's Lincoln Park.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process uses multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Generally, a chromolithograph begins with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors are layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color can be blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda.

Publication History and Census

This view was prepared by the Topographical Automobile Road Map Company and printed by H.C. Madison (name derived from the 1914 Catalogue of Copyright Entries), both seemingly short-lived San Francisco-based outfits, for the long-lived Aetna Insurance Company. The same Catalogue of Copyright Entries notes C. M. (Merriman) Peter as the maker and provides the descriptive title 'Birds-eye view, main automobile routes, Central California' (the same Peter, noted as a 'cartoonist' in contemporary city directories, was also the maker of a more widely-distributed 'Peter's San Francisco Locator. The Birds-Eye-View Map of the Exposition City,' printed in 1914 in several formats). Though dated 1913 here, the just-mentioned Catalogue records the copyright as 1914 (a date which also seems more consistent with the founding of the Lincoln Highway Association and the mention of the 'Exposition Grounds' on the verso).

In any event, the only other known example of this work is held by the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. The recto is identical to the present work except for the cartouche at bottom-left, containing an advertisement for the Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley rather than Aetna, and the printer being listed as Britton and Rey instead of H.C. Madison. The verso of the Rumsey example, though highly similar in presentation and subject matter, also differs from that here.