Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Description

Detailed map of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition fairgrounds prepared for Raymond & Whitcomb in 1893.

The map provides a finely detailed treatment of the Exposition grounds, with most of the important buildings labeled.

The grounds of the University of Chicago, which had just been founded three years earlier, are also shown.

As noted by the Newberry Library online exhibition:

Maps of the World’s Columbian Exposition served many functions, ranging from facilitating the construction and promotion of the event to advertising specific displays, guiding tourists, and furnishing mementos. The Old Times Distillery distributed this vest-pocket map to draw visitors to their exhibit. The map features an image of the Old Times’ miniature distillery exhibit, which was tucked in an out-of-the-way location in the southeastern corner of the fairgrounds. The cardboard cover of the map describes another promotional gimmick, a contest that invited visitors to register their estimates of the number of admission tickets that would be sold during the run of the fair. The best guesser was to receive "fifteen barrels of Kentucky's famous Old Times Sour Mash Whiskey."

For this guide, Rand McNally & Co. adapted one of its generic mass-produced maps of the fair, overprinting the sheet with the promotional illustration and text supplied by Old Times. Rand, McNally dominated the market for fair maps—and Chicago mapmaking in general—through efficient production, aggressive marketing. As exemplified here, the company was a master of customizing its products to suit the needs of its clients. Many other companies exhibiting at the fair also chose versions of the "Indexed Standard Guide Map of the World's Columbian Exposition.” Rand, McNally's line of innovative, adaptable maps doubled as advertisements for the sponsoring firm and for the exposition itself, all the while leading readers to where they wanted to go.

Condition Description
Minor mounting stain at the center of the map with very small attendant loss.