1949 Oliver Pictorial Map of the United States from a Texan's Point of View

This is a rare 1949 Frank Oliver pictorial map of the United States from a Texan's point of view. Naturally, Texas dominates the majority of the continental U.S. and reaches from the Rio Grande River to the Canadian border, labeled simply as the Arctic Circle. The oversized depiction of Texas is filled with vignettes, all illustrating something that is the world's 'finest', 'best', or 'largest', all of which surrounds the land owned by TexOak Flooring Company, situated at the 'Heart of the World's Largest Pine and Oak Timberland'. Some of these vignettes tout aspects of life in Texas, such as Dallas as being home to the 'World's best dressed and most beautiful women'. Texas is also, apparently, home to the 'World's tallest people (and tales)', the 'World's most diversified weather', and 'Millionaires by the score'. Oliver also promotes Texas as possessing the world's 'finest cattle land', 'largest wheat fields', 'largest piece of private proppity', and the 'biggest and juiciest melons'. A farmer working the 'World's finest farmland' is illustrated telling his worker to 'Just hold the seed in your left hand and the. Sickle in your right… '. Perhaps the most amusing of these vignettes, however, references the open spaces of the Texas Panhandle and promotes the region as the 'World's best treatment for claustrophobia'.

The World Outside Texas

Very few states are deemed worthy of inclusion, and those that are have been labeled not with their proper names but as they would have been known (and pronounced) in Texas. Some states are known by other names, such as the 'Gulf of Texas Breakwater' (Florida), or 'Land of Golden (Come to Texas) Opportunity' (California). Some areas of the country are simply left blank and labeled as regions, such as the Northeast, labeled as 'DamYankeeLand', or the Midwest, which is simply an Indian Reservation. The Pacific Northwest is only partly explored, and consists of desert, a small grove of trees, and the Rockies. Washington, D.C. is subtitled as an 'outpost established to protect Texas interests in the East'. The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed the Gulf of Texas, and the Atlantic Ocean is the East Gulf of Texas, while the Pacific is, of course, the West Gulf of Texas. A decorative title cartouche is situated in the upper right corner, with the title and the legend emblazoned on a tanned piece of hide. A rattlesnake, armadillo, and Gila monster sit in front of the hide.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Frank Oliver and published by the TexOak Flooring Company in 1949. Only one example is recorded in the OCLC and it is part of the collection at the Library of Congress. We are aware of only one other instance when this map has appeared on the private market.