1932 Luther S. Phillips Pictorial Map of Mount Desert Island

This is a scarce 1932 pictorial map of Mount Desert Island and its vicinity, drawn and published by Northeast Harbor artist Luther S. Phillips. The map includes Acadia National Park, the largest and most beloved national park in the eastern United States.

A Closer Look

The map covers the Maine coast from Surry to Dyer Neck, including Mount Desert Island (Acadia National Park), Long Island, Bartlett Island, Gouldsboro, Winter Harbor, Oak Point, and the Schoodic Peninsula. The boundaries of Acadia National Park, as well as beloved park sites and trails, are illustrated. An inset map in the lower right describes the 1667 explorations of Samuel de Champlain. A brief description of Mount Desert Island is incorporated into the border art. The map's cartouche in the lower left mimics 18th-century Dutch Golden Age cartographic conventions. It includes an American Indian Maiden and Warrior on either side of a map of the Western Hemisphere. Labeled 'Novus Orbis', this map loosely mimics Mercator's map of 1587, with considerable license.

Acadia National Park

Mount Desert Island, so named because of its many bald rocky mountaintops, has been a tourist destination since the mid-19th century, when it was discovered by outsiders, artists, journalists, Hudson River School artists, and other patrons, known collectively as the 'Rusticators.' Undaunted by crude accommodations and simple food, they sought out local fishermen and farmers for accommodation and guidance. Summer after summer, the rusticators returned to renew friendships with local islanders and, most of all, to savor the fresh salt air, scenery, and relaxed pace. Soon the villagers' cottages and fishermen's huts filled to overflowing, and by 1880, 30 hotels competed for vacationers' dollars. Tourism was becoming the island's primary industry. Drawing the attention of the wealthy and influential, the island was designated as Sieur de Monts National Monument by President Woodrow Wilson in July 1916. In February 1919, the area's status was officially changed from a National Monument to a National Park, making it the first National Park east of the Mississippi River. With the change to a National Park came a name change as well, to Lafayette National Park. It was not until January 1929 that the park was given its current name, Acadia National Park. Acadia is unlike most other National Parks, as its creation was encouraged by numerous private individuals. One, John. D. Rockefeller, purchased a summer home in Bass Harbor in 1910. Rockefeller began buying up land on the island with the goal of creating a system of carriage roads to make 'one of the greatest views in the world' accessible to all visitors.

Publication History and Census

This map is uncommon. We have found only two examples listed in the OCLC. It is scarce to the market, this being the second example we've seen.