1952 Lucien Boucher Air France Pictorial Map of the World

One of Lucien Boucher's more iconic images, this is his c. 1952 promotional map of the world of Air France in its large format edition. Boucher utilizes a beautiful double hemisphere projection, shading the continents in a rich blue. Air France routes (highlighted in red) crisscross the globe, connecting world capitals and shrinking travel times. A Lockheed Constellation appears just east of Florida over the Atlantic, its iconic triple-tail recognizable. Neptune sits astride a sea monster in the center of the Pacific ,and a whale surfaces off the coast of Japan. Sailing ships are illustrated in the oceans, and another sea monster swims southeast of Madagascar. The surround, on a field of burgundy, features illustrations of global historic events, flora, fauna, and cultures, all in a mid-century modern aesthetic.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Lucien Boucher and printed by Perceval of Paris c. 1952. We note two examples cataloged in OCLC: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Stanford University.