"Yosemite", Mora, Joseph Jacinto

This is the final state of Jo Mora's delightful "carte" of Yosemite, published in 1949 by the Yosemite & Curry Company. It is distinguished from earlier editions by the updated cars and sign reading "To Tioga Pass and Big Oak Flat" at lower left. Mora (1876-1947) was an Uruguayan-American artist and cowboy with a deep fascination with the American West and an inimitable style. He is perhaps best known for his "cartes," cartoonish yet precise maps of locations out west that are packed with humor and detail. Dedicated to Mora's friend Stephen Mather, the industrialist and conservationist who became the first director of the National Park Service (an organization he rallied to create), the map depicts the majestic sweep of Yosemite National Park and is filled with light-hearted illustrations and visual puns. Perhaps the note beneath the title best sums up Mora's project: "There is so much of Grandeur and reverential Solemnity to Yosemite that a bit of humor may help the better to happily reconcile ourselves to the triviality of Man. Give me the souls who smile at their devotions! Now, should this light effort-- not altogether truthful, so not altogether dull-- afford you a tithe of mirth, I shall feel I have added to your reverence for Yosemite." Among the puns are a king atop Royal Arches, a picnic basket on Basket Dome, and a man relaxing in a chair, engulfed by a cloud on Cloud's Rest. The title is done in a style that emulates the Native American art for which Mora had such an appreciation. Several panels run down the left side of the map showing various activities available to tourists at the park, including an image of "That First View" (a family standing with their mouths agape) and a large vignette focused on winter sports.

References: Rumsey #8512.

Condition: B+

This example is backed in archival tissue and has slightly faded color. There are a few tiny abrasions at top right and in the winter sports vignette.