1932 Clegg Pictorial Map of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware

This is a 1932 Ernest Clegg pictorial map of Maryland, Delaware, and northern Virginia illustrating the vicinity of Washington, D.C and the Chesapeake Bay. The map depicts from Wilmington, Delaware south to Norfolk, Virginia. Publication of this map was sponsored by the Washington National Cathedral, as such pictorial views mark many of the area's churches. Other vignettes highlight important historical sites, including the Capital, Arlington National Cemetery, Monticello, the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, and John Brown's Fort in Harper's Ferry. Crossed cavalry sabers identify American Civil War (1861 - 1865) battlefields, among them Gettysburg, Antietam, Bull Run, Shiloh, and The Wilderness. Natural sites are included as well, including Shenandoah National Park, mineral springs in West Virginia, and Caledonia State Park in Pennsylvania.

The Border Views

Views illustrating historical events adorn the borders. These include Independence Hall, the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, the Capital of Virginia in Richmond, the National Washington Cathedral, William and Mary College, the Washington Monument, and the Revolutionary War French Fleet arriving in the Chesapeake Bay.

20th Century Pictorial Cartography

Pictorial qualities have been common in cartography from at least from the 16th century, when publishers like Braun and Hogenberg incorporated view-like qualities and other pictorial elements into their famous city plans. Braun and Hogenberg, and similar cartographers, issued their town books to express, not necessarily the geography of their subjects, but rather the 'essence' of the town/city. As mathematics and surveying principles became more advanced, travel increased, and the ability to translate 2-dimensional cartographic perspectives into an understanding of the actual world became commonplace, maps themselves transformed. By the late 19th century most maps had become geographical tools that illustrated the region cartographically, but failed in the original raison d'être as expressed by Braun and Hogenberg, to illustrate a place's 'essence'. So, where a city map of 19th century Paris might provide a completely navigable presentation of the city, one could glean almost nothing of Paris' character from it. In the late 18th century, the first modern 'pictorial' style maps developed. These maps, like Tomas Lopez's 1788 map of Seville, attempted to provide both cartographic accuracy and pictorial elements that might convey the character of the city. In that case, Lopez incorporated pictorial vignettes to illustrate important buildings and monuments. This style became increasingly common throughout the 19th century and early 20th centuries, particularly for centers of commerce like London, Paris, and Rome, where they are often mass-produced and referred to as 'monumental' maps. The style further evolved in the early to mid-20th century, when revolutionary cartographers and illustrators like MacDonald Gill, Jo Mora, Arthur Suchy, Frank Dorn, Ernest Dudley Chase, and many others, combined vignette-style illustrations, modern printing techniques, inspiration from Japanese printmaking and manga, and from clever satirical cartographers/artists like Fred Rose, to produce maps that once again focused on revealing the essence a place, usually, but not always, at the sacrifice of cartographic precision.

Publication History and Census

This map was designed by Ernest Clegg and published by the Washington Cathedral in 1932. Two editions were issued simultaneously. One, the present example, was issued in full color. The other was uncolored, issued in just 200 examples, and intended for hand coloration by Clegg. Four examples of this map are cataloged in OCLC as part of the institutional collections at the Boston Public Library, Yale University, Harvard University, the Library of Congress, and the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Another example, part of the David Rumsey Map Collection, is partially hand-colored, suggesting that Clegg did not get far in his ambition to hand color all 200 - in fact, we have not identified any examples fully hand-colorized by Clegg.