{"product_id":"13349","title":"1950 A Christmas Map of the United States","description":"\u003cp\u003eOverflowing with humor, regional character, and hundreds of whimsical illustrations, this rare Christmas promotional folder transforms the United States into Santa Claus's holiday playground while offering an unfiltered glimpse into mid-century American popular culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished by the General Drafting Company of New York around 1950, A Christmas Map of the United States is an illustrated folded presentation folder featuring one of the most delightful pictorial Christmas maps of the postwar era. Nearly every state is populated with tiny cartoon vignettes showing Santa Claus engaged in local industries, landmarks, wildlife, and holiday traditions. He logs timber in Oregon, ranches cattle in Texas, fishes the Pacific Coast, harvests crops across the Great Plains, and delivers presents from Maine to Florida in more than one hundred individual scenes that reward careful study. Decorative holly borders, a scroll title cartouche, and a festive compass rose fashioned from Santa's face frame the composition, while an inset humorously depicts General Drafting Company's headquarters at 6 Church Street in Lower Manhattan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eA Holiday Portrait of Mid-Century America\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRather than emphasizing geography, the artist celebrated the distinct identity of each state through regional occupations, landmarks, and local customs. The result is less a conventional map than a visual tour of America as it was imagined during the early years of the postwar boom. Every corner reveals another joke or small narrative, encouraging the viewer to linger over the countless details hidden throughout the composition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot all of that humor translates comfortably today. Interspersed among the playful scenes are racial caricatures and ethnic stereotypes that were common in commercial illustration of the era but are now widely regarded as offensive. Most notable are depictions of African Americans harvesting cotton in the South alongside other exaggerated stereotypes. These images are an undeniable part of the folder's historical significance, illustrating how mainstream advertising and popular art often treated race during the period. Rather than diminishing the piece, they provide an honest reminder that even lighthearted holiday ephemera can preserve the social attitudes of its time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eGeneral Drafting Company\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1909, the General Drafting Company became one of America's premier commercial cartographic firms, producing road maps for Esso, Mobil, and numerous other petroleum companies throughout the twentieth century. While millions of motorists relied upon the firm's highway maps, promotional pieces such as this were issued in far smaller numbers and have proven considerably more elusive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts folded cardstock format indicates it was produced as a presentation folder rather than as a conventional map, although whatever it originally accompanied is no longer present. Despite extensive research, we have been unable to locate another surviving example in dealer inventories, auction records, or institutional collections. Its rarity, imaginative artwork, and surprisingly candid portrayal of mid-century America make it one of the more unusual pieces of Christmas Americana we have encountered.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New World Cartographic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43434206920765,"sku":"13349","price":1800.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0390\/9705\/files\/13349a_A_Christmas_Map_of_the_United_States_featuring_Santa_Clause_1950s.jpg?v=1786056620","url":"https:\/\/nwcartographic.com\/products\/13349","provider":"New World Cartographic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}