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Description

Extremely rare pictorial map of Sequoia National Park, drawn by Della Taylor Hoss.

The map shows the park oriented with east at the top, emphasizing the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and John  Muir Trail on the horizon. In the foreground, the park unfolds as a series of hills, with particular emphasis on the famous Giant Sequoia Redwood trees, many of which are named.

The park roads, trails, campgrounds, village and other points of interest are also noted.

This map is in the same style as her rare map of Yosemite:  https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/69384

Rarity

The map is extremely rare. OCLC locates a single example in the Bibliotheque National de France.

Della Taylor Hoss Biography

Della Taylor Hoss was born in Illinois in 1900. She spent her childhood in Los Angeles. Della's brother, Frank Taylor, worked with Horace Albright, conservationist and Director of the National Park Service, and co-authored or ghost-wrote many of Albright's works. This connection gave her an early affinity for the National Park System.

Della graduated from Stanford University in 1923 and then continued her studies at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and then the National School for Fine and Applied Arts in Washington, D.C.

Della Taylor married Herman Hoss, who was the Federal Magistrate and Treasurer of Yosemite Park and Curry Company. Della and Herman lived in Yosemite Valley from 1928 until 1942.

Della was responsible for a number of the most iconic images of Yosemite, including early pictorial maps and posters. She continued to pursue her passion for illustration and the Sierras throughout her later life, traveling the White Mountains to document the Bristlecone Pines in a series of pencil drawings that drew wide praise.

Della Taylor Hoss passed away in 1997 at the age of 97.