1898 Regal Shoe View Map of New York City

NewYorkRegalShoe-harpersweekly-1898
$400.00
The Regal Shoe. - Main View
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1898 Regal Shoe View Map of New York City

NewYorkRegalShoe-harpersweekly-1898

A fun New York City cartographic curiosity.
$400.00

Title


The Regal Shoe.
  1898 (dated)     10 x 15 in (25.4 x 38.1 cm)

Description


A fun cartographic curiosity, this is an 1898 shoe advertisement set against and backdrop of New York City. The view, prepared in 1897 by Moses King, has here been coopted to demonstrate the prosperity of the Regal Shoe Company. The caption describes how, if all the shoes they cold in 1897 were made into a single shoe that shoe would be 34 miles long and 17 miles higher - hence the illustration at hand. And indeed, the Regal Shoe Company, founded by Elmer J. Bliss in 1893, was one of the largest and most successful shoe companies in the world. In 1895 the company claimed that Czar Nicholas II, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Mikado of Japan, and the Emperor of China all wore Regal shoes. The firm remained prosperous until the Great Depression when it, like so many companies, was forced into bankruptcy.

Cartographer


Harper and Brothers (1817 – Present) is New York based American printing publishing firm founded in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John Harper as J. and J. Harper (1817-1833). Their younger brothers Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper joined the company around 1926 prompting the 1833 imprint change to Harper and Brothers (1833 – 1962). The firm published countless books, magazines, prints, maps, and more. They began publishing a monthly magazine, Harper's Monthly in 1850. The success of Harper's Monthly led to the introduction of a popular weekly illustrated journal, Harper's Weekly published from 1857 - 1916. They later introduced Harper's Bazar (1867) and Harper's Young People (1879). From about 1899 the business went through a series of permutations selling off some assets and developing others. The company merged with Row, Peters and Company inn 1962, rebranding itself as Harper and Row (1962 – 1990), which was acquired by Marshall Pickering in 1988. It was acquired by Rupert Mordoch (News Corp) and merged with William Collins and Sons in 1990 to form HaprerCollins (1990 – Present), the imprint under which it still publishes. Their original offices were at 331 Franklin Street, roughly below today's Manhattan Bridge. Today they have many offices and are one of the world's largest publishing companies and one of the 'Big Five' English-language publishers. More by this mapmaker...

Source


Harper's Weekly, April 23, 1898, p. 407..    

Condition


Very good. Text on verso.