1941 Hammond Pictorial Map of United States Defense Mobilization Before WWII

This is a c. 1941 C. S. Hammond and Company pictorial map of the United States highlighting the military and economic resources available on the brink of World War II. The map depicts the United States from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic Seaboard and from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and Key West. Blu -colored cogs highlight industrial areas around the country in an effort to illustrate the industrial might that would be brought to bear. Other defense industries are marked on the map by icons, including shipyards and factories making planes, airplane engines, munitions, tanks, guns, steel, and aluminum. Army and navy bases are identified as well, as are army and navy airfields.

It is the pictorial border, however, that immediately draws the viewer's attention. The air, land, and sea forces of the United States military are put on full display, creating a forceful image that definitely falls under the umbrella of propaganda and the banner of 'support the military'. Cutting edge aircraft, such as the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Grumman F4F Wildcat, and Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, are prominently illustrated along the map's top border, with tanks, artillery guns, howitzers, and supply trucks representing ground forces.

Perhaps the most incredible part of this piece (with the benefit of hindsight of course) is the placement of the battleship front and center along the bottom border. The legendary naval engagements fought between the United States and Japan had not yet occurred, and naval strategists believed that the battleship, not the aircraft carrier, would be the key element to success on the world's oceans. An aircraft carrier appears to the right of the battleship, complete with its aircraft on the flight deck. A heavy cruiser steams to the battleship's left, surrounded by torpedo boats, light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.

Illustrations of American Army and Navy insignia frame the entire piece, with army insignia on the left and navy insignia on the right. Army insignia of rank, from general to private first class, are situated at the top left, while insignia of 'arms and services', such as the infantry, ordnance department, signal corps, and medical corps, are on the bottom left. Naval insignia of rank are just opposite, on the top right, while naval specialty marks, such as sharpshooter, bugler, machinist's mate, and cook, are on the bottom right. A sample of Army and Navy Air Corps insignia are included along the top, while the insignia of army headquarters, field armies, army corps, and army divisions are along the bottom.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by C.S. Hammond and Company and published c. 1941. The OCLC catalogues examples of this map as being part of fourteen institutional collections, but it is scarce on the private market.