1963 Weld Wilkie Pictorial Map of Napa County, California

This is a beautiful 1963 pictorial map of Napa County, California, by Weld Wilkie. It covers Napa County, one of the world's premier wine regions, in beautiful detail. It notes several landmarks and places of interest, such as The Old Bale Mill, Breathing Geysers (Geysers Geothermal Field, typo on map as 'Ceysers'), and Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, with a location key in the lower right quadrant. Fifteen principal wineries, including Charles Krug Winery, Beringer Bros. Inc., Inglenook Vineyard Company, and Schramsberg Winery, are also marked with a key in the lower right quadrant. The map is adorned with several illustrations throughout, depicting activities like dining, fishing, horseback riding, trekking, camping, golfing, and water sports, as well as illustrations of animals, trees, and other landmarks. Roads, rivers, lakes, towns, and other topographical features are also noted.

The Illustrations

The bottom left quadrant includes the title cartouche featuring a wine barrel, while the top right quadrant includes information about the history of Napa County. Three large illustrations in the top left quadrant feature the Mt. St. Helena Golf Course at Calistoga, water sports at Lake Berryessa, and the large stone building at St. Helena, reputedly the largest stone winery in the world. Napa County's four scenic seasons, viz. blossom time, summertime, harvest time, and autumn time are explained. A decorative border featuring grapes surrounds the map.

Touring Napa

The verso bears information and photographs of four suggested tours: the Lake Berryessa tour, the Wine County tour, A Scenic and Historic Tour of Napa County, and the Landscaped for Living tour. Information and chief attractions of St. Helena and Calistoga are also listed.

20th Century Pictorial Maps

This is considered a 'pictorial map' or a 'decorative map' and reflects a style that first began to appear around 1910. As a map its intention is not so much to provide direction as to illustrate the character, famous places, and historical appeal of Napa County. Cartographically speaking, this map style most likely draws its inspiration from late 19th century 'tourist maps' and 'railroad maps'. Tourist Maps, common to major cities in Europe (usually Paris or London), included profiles of notable buildings and monuments and were designed to help foreign tourists identify and navigate to the most important sights. 'Railroad Maps' are a related genre more common to the United States. During the latter part of the 19th century railroad boom, railroad companies began issuing decorative route maps extolling the virtues various regions and their accessibility by rail. Standing somewhere between these two cartographic conventions, our map combines the decorative aspects of both while reducing cartographic value. It may be hard to get from A to B using this map, but its attractive design and decorative flourishes, make it an excellent souvenir and memento of a wonderful Napa County vacation.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Weld Wilkie and copyrighted by Herdell and Beard of St. Helena. It was developed by the Napa County Tourist and Recreation Council and provided by the Napa County Development Council in 1963.