1951 Humorous Pictorial Postcard Map of Texas

This is a 1951 John Randolph oversize pictorial postcard map of Texas. The map depicts North America dominated by a grossly outsized Texas dominating the continent from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes and from the Arctic Ocean to the Yucatan. The western United States was 'ceded to [the] U.S.', while the northern plains are labeled as 'unannexed'. The northeast is 'Dam Yankee Land' and the south is simply 'Deep South Suh!'. Canada is unlabeled, with a 'Texas Ranger on Foreign Service', while Mexico and Central America are referred to by the phrase 'South of the Border'. Numerous cities are labeled throughout the state, including Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, and Corpus Christi. A compass in the lower left corner, in the form of a bow and arrow, points the way to 'North Texas', 'East Texas', 'South Texas', and 'West Texas'.

Pictorial vignettes are used to illustrate the superlatives used to describe the state. Some, like the 'wheat grains on [the] way to market' or the view of the Alamo are fairly straight forward. Others provide a much more comic element, such as the 'beefiest cattle' with a very round cow standing on a scale, or the 'finest deer hunting' which features a buck standing on its hind legs carrying a rifle. Another such vignette is the one illustrating the 'orneriest rattlers', embodied by a rattlesnake with two arms shaking a baby rattle. 'Swiftest justice' is portrayed by a cowpoke blasting the head off another man with only a bullet. Randolph also makes it clear that 'everything is bigger in Texas' by including the 'tallest smoke stack', the 'tallest pines', and the 'tallest men', which are second only to the 'prettiest girls'. A Texas Moon, situated in the upper right, also dwarfs 'other people's moon'. Randolph also apparently foresaw our current political environment, since, in the northern part of Texas he includes an illustration of a man playing a guitar with the caption, 'TV Star? No, Politician'.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by John Randolph and published in 1951. This map is fairly rare, with only three known examples in institutional collections and only one other instance when it has been on the private market in recent years.