1952 Foster and Kleiser Infographic Map of Seattle, Washington: Traffic Flow

A splendid c. 1952 Foster and Kleiner infographic map of Seattle, Washington, illustrating traffic flow. Kleiner and Foster, an outdoor advertising firm, created this map to study traffic patterns and determine premium billboard locations.

A Closer Look

The map depicts Seattle from E 117th Street south to W. Leo Street and from Puget Sound to Lake Washington. Bright orange highlights main traffic arteries: Roosevelt Way, Madison Street, East Lake Avenue, Aurora Avenue, East Marginal Way, Rainier Avenue, West Spokane Street, 1st Avenue S., and 4th Avenue South. These streets vary in width, which illustrates the number of persons that travel along each road over an average 18-hour day - the widest seeing some 60,000 people. An inset in the lower left corner focuses on Seattle's business district, where some streets exhibit a traffic flow of over 100,000 people daily.

A Company Sales Document?

Red stars and dots appear at several locations across the map. While no key explains these, we suspect they represent Foster and Kleiner billboard locations. Foster and Kleiner sold outdoor advertising space, which explains why they created a traffic flow map. This information would allow the firm to place billboards at strategic locations based on traffic flow. The map may have been part of a Foster and Kleiner sales pitch to prospective clients or used internally.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by Foster and Kleiner c. 1952. The map appears in the 1953 Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries. Five examples of a map bearing this title are cataloged in OCLC and are dated 1931 (University of Kansas), 1948 (University of Washington, Seattle Public Library, Stanford University), and 1952 (Library of Congress).