"A Kite View of Philadelphia and the Sesqui Centennial International Exposition...",

This vibrant pictorial plan of the City of Brotherly Love was designed, drawn, and colored by architect Edwin B. Olsen and artist Blake E. Clark. It was the second in a series of three city maps that the pair designed for Boston-based publishing company Houghton Mifflin in 1926, following their very successful The Colour of an Old City - A Map of Boston and preceding Map of the City of Washington. All three maps were inspired by MacDonald Gill's groundbreaking Wonderground map of London (1914). The product of three months of research and design, the Philadelphia map lays the city out in a grid plan with illustrations of notable locations such as Independence Hall, Reading Terminal, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, City Hall, the zoo, various colleges and historical churches, and much more. At bottom is a scroll-like inset map showing the grounds for the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition, the world's fair commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The border incorporates numerous historical vignettes, and two city seals and the seal of Penn's colony. There are also reproductions of four notable Philadelphia maps in the corners: Melish's Map of 1816 (top left); Penn's Lots 1698 (top right); Penn's Plan 1682 (bottom left); and New Sweden 1654 (bottom right). An ornate compass rose appears in the Schuylkill. The title cartouche is fittingly kite-shaped.

References: Hornsby (Picturing America) pp. 17-20; Rumsey #7948.002.

Condition: B+

Issued folding, now flattened and mounted on heavy linen to reinforce and repair a couple of long tears at right and a number of minor fold separations.