Item #5081 An Intimate Map of Far-Famed Yosemite Valley Compiled in a Spirit of Fun by Lowell Butler. Lowell Butler.
An Intimate Map of Far-Famed Yosemite Valley Compiled in a Spirit of Fun by Lowell Butler.
An Intimate Map of Far-Famed Yosemite Valley Compiled in a Spirit of Fun by Lowell Butler.
An Intimate Map of Far-Famed Yosemite Valley Compiled in a Spirit of Fun by Lowell Butler.

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An Intimate Map of Far-Famed Yosemite Valley Compiled in a Spirit of Fun by Lowell Butler.

Los Angeles: Westways, Automobile Club of Southern California, 1937. Half-tone with later hand-coloring, 28.2 x 43 cm, plus margins.

A 1930s pictorial map of Yosemite Valley featuring numerous amusing illustrations highlighting the tourist attractions of this celebrated national park.

Created for the Southern California Automobile Club’s Westways Magazine, this map provides an automobile guide to Yosemite and features early trails as well as famous tourist destinations in Yosemite Valley. The map extends from Chinquapin in the south to Yosemite Falls in the north, with El Portal standing as its westernmost point and Mt. Starr King lying farthest east. Numerous illustrations depict natural attractions, hotels, local animals and tourist activities, and roads are shown coursing through the region. Many of the descriptions of these locales are humorous. The elevations of natural falls, mountains, and hikes are given, and at the bottom-right a list of facts about Yosemite is featured on a billboard surmounted by a bear.

One amusing illustration depicts a tourist couple in a car leaving El Portal; an overly affectionate bear is shown embracing the rear of the vehicle. Another couple—holding fishing rods—is shown running to Tamarack Creek where a fish is springing out of the water. A legend just below the title identifies park boundaries, trails, main roads, and great views. In the left and bottom margins arrows point to tourist destinations off the map proper.

In 1906, the Automobile Club of Southern California (est. 1900) started mapping Southern California’s roads, and four years later began Westways Magazine, which focused on automotive tourism, covering such subjects as Western national parks, deserts, California’s coastal regions, and Hawaii. Around this time the organization became involved in shaping transportation policy. The Club issued the first systematic traffic survey of Los Angeles in 1922 and in 1937 composed the first extensive plan for a region-wide freeway system.

Lowell Butler, who served as the Club’s art director, created multiple pictorial maps for the organization from the 1930s to the mid-50s, including A Map of the Marked Historical Sites of California (1952) and Spanish California: A Map of the Missions, Presidios, Pueblos and Some of the More Interesting Ranchos (1956). The map offered here is one of Butler’s earliest productions.

No records in OCLC.

REFERENCES: Automobile Club of Southern California collection, 1892–1963 at digitallibrary.usc.edu

CONDITION: Very good, two light creases at middle-bottom, light rippling at upper-middle margin.

Item #5081

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