Map Collection
Disney’s Darkest Day
By Lauren Maddox
July 17th is celebrated at Disneyland as the park’s official opening day. This year marks the 65th anniversary– Disney hasn’t announced any official celebration plans yet, but fans can most likely expect a birthday bash to remember. The park’s anniversary wasn’t always celebrated on July 17th, however; during Walt Disney’s life, the official date was July 18th, one day after what we consider to be the opening day now.
Walt Disney was adamant that the July 17th opening not be acknowledged as the official opening– and with good reason. July 17th, 1955 was such a disaster that Disney sometimes called it “Black Sunday.”
Expectations for the July 17th preview day were high. Disney had been planning his amusement park since at least 1948, when he sent the first memo to Dick Kelsey describing his plans for a Mickey Mouse theme-park. But the original idea pre-dated even this first draft of the park concept; Disney’s own father worked at the World’s Columbia Exposition in 1893.
Map of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Click the link to see this map in our Digital Collections! 
Map of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Click the link to see this map in our Digital Collections!
The World’s Columbia Exposition was a Chicago’s World’s Fair held in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s first arrival in North America. The Fair was supposed to be a symbol of the burgeoning ideas of American exceptionalism and Chicago’s recovery from 1871 fire. The Fair was a monumental undertaking; the grounds covered more than 650 acres, and nearly 26 million visitors passed through. More important to Disney’s story than the grandiosity of the fair: the 1893 World’s Fair was the first to host a dedicated amusement park area.
His father’s memories of that Fair and its amusement rides stayed with Disney until his own fatherhood. Disney cited watching his children on a merry-go-round as the final inspiration that lead him to Disneyland.
Disney talking to a group of children at Disneyland in 1957. Click the link to see this photo in our Digital Archives!
Besides his tender family memories, Disney also had a practical reason to build an amusement park. He was, after all, a businessman first. As Disney’s animation studio in Burbank gained more success, more and more fans wanted to come visit. The inside of an animation studio isn’t actually that interesting, and it would be hard to get any work done with crowds of tourists peeking in on the animators who worked there.
The original plans for Disneyland put the amusement park right next door to the Burbank studio. After realizing how much of an undertaking (and how many more acres) the amusement park was going to be, Disney moved the location to the Anaheim site.
Disney entertaining King Muhammad V at Disneyland, 1957. Click the link to see this photo in our Digital Archives!
For the preview day, Disney invited a select group of 14,000 guests. This included the press as well as friends and families. This was the first thing to go wrong that day. Around twice as many guests actually showed up to the park– many had purchased counterfeit tickets to gain entry to the preview day opening, but many more simply climbed over the walls and broke into the park. Disneyland, for the day, was only prepared to serve the 14,000 intended guests; vendors ran out of food, half of the water fountains weren’t functioning because the plumbers working on the park went on strike (and offered the ultimatum “bathrooms or water fountains”). The event was sponsored by Pepsi, so many park-goers accused Disney of forcing them to buy drinks by sabotaging the water fountains. It was an unseasonably warm day for Anaheim, and the freshly poured asphalt was so soft that women’s high heels would sink into it.
Besides these critical logistical failures, the media coverage of the event was a circus. Disney himself missed the cue to read his dedication, and said, to the camera live and on air, that he’d thought he’d been given the signal to start. Bob Cummings was caught on camera flirting with the dancers and even kissing one girl. Other commentators lost their mics and had to cover for themselves while the tapes ran on.
In summary, the whole day was deeply embarrassing to Disney. He never acknowledged the July 17th preview as the opening day of Disneyland, and it was only after his death that it was adopted as the official anniversary.
Disney’s legacy lives on, for all the good and ills that entails. But perhaps his greatest contribution to the amusement park circuit, besides Disneyland itself, is the impact his choices made on amusement park cartography.
When Disney was first pitching the park idea to investors, he used maps created by Herbert Ryman to help draw the picture of the park that he was imagining and struggling to put into words. Ryman’s version of the park didn’t make it to brochures, partially because his maps were of an imaginary park that wasn’t quite the same as the real Disneyland.
The 1953 Ryman Map of Disneyland from the New York Times. Click the link to see the rest of this article!
Due to budgeting issues, the official map of Disneyland took another three years after opening day to create. Sam McKim was the artist behind the first official park maps in 1958. The maps, at this point, still had some aspirations for parts of Disneyland not yet built, but mostly functioned as tools for park-goers to use to find their way around and as free souvenirs they could take home. Sam McKim’s maps ran, with some slight adjustments over the years, until 1964. For his contributions to the Disney brand, he was named “Map Maker to the Kingdom” and a tribute to his work can still be found at Disneyland.
McKim’s 1958 Map of Disneyland. Click the link to see this map on Mouse Maps!
Maps as souvenirs was not a new concept; many World’s Fairs gave out artful brochure maps for visitors to remember their day at the Fair. But McKim’s willingness to push the boundaries of realistic map making in order to appeal to the imaginative and exciting nature of Disneyland revolutionized the amusement park map. After McKim, the artists behind the brochure maps became anonymous, but his impact on the work remains clear.
1968 Map of Disneyland. This version removed Edison Square and Liberty Park, which were not built but still included on the previous generation of maps. Click the link to see this map in our Digital Collections!
Cartography was a key tool in Disneyland’s creation. And it continues to be an important part of the Disneyland brand an experience– but more than that, the maps at Disneyland give us a way to take the park home. That first day may have been a disaster, but many, many Disney fans have experienced and loved the park since then. Happy 65th anniversary! Remember to take a map before you go–they help us find our way.
American Geographical Society Councilman Roosevelt and his Geographer
By Lauren Maddox
The American Geographical Society’s council has been host to some famous and interesting members– Rockefellers and Tiffanys, even. But even with a cast of fascinating characters, it’s hard to outshine Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Through Roosevelt and Bowman’s letters, we can track the progression of Roosevelt’s health and his political career. Roosevelt often sent letters apologizing for his absence from AGS Council meetings, due to travel and health problems both.
As Roosevelt’s political career progressed, his ability to attend council meetings and participate in Society work was greatly hampered. He was elected governor and then president during his tenure on the council! In 1932, he was forced to resign from his position as council member in light of his impending Presidency. Roosevelt served on the American Geographical Society’s council for more than 10 years– he was a busy man but always believed in the Society’s mission and continued to think kindly of them after his obligations to his office prevented him from participating on the council.
Roosevelt’s relationship with the AGS of New York didn’t end with his resignation from the council, however. The two men continued to correspond, and Roosevelt made Isaiah Bowman a State Department adviser during World War II.
This wasn’t the first time Isaiah Bowman had gained the confidence of a President; in 1917, he offered the AGS’s resources to the government and became close to Woodrow Wilson. His insight played a key role in how territory was distributed as part of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. It wasn’t surprising that FDR would keep Bowman and his geographical and cartographic resources in mind during World War II. As an adviser in the State Department, Bowman participated in the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and the San Francisco Conference, which established the United Nations. During this time, Bowman was still President of John Hopkins, and he established the Applied Physics Laboratory, where technologies like the Proximity Fuze were created. Bowman was a useful man for the president to rely on.
“The Odyssey of FDR” is an unflattering map of FDR’s political exploits up to 1939.
It was, however, surprising that Roosevelt enlisted Bowman to help find and establish refuge for Jewish emigrants displaced by the war. Bowman was a known antisemite who put policies into place at John Hopkins to limit the number of Jewish students admitted to the school. Neil Smith’s American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization revealed Bowman’s prejudiced policies at John Hopkins and his treatment of Jewish students there. Unsurprisingly, Bowman’s search for refuge for Jewish emigrants lead him to five different countries, not one of which was the United States.
The collection of Roosevelt’s and Bowman’s letters in the AGSL collections help track the rise of Roosevelt to power, and the years-long relationship he maintained with the American Geographical Society and its leadership. Reading through their letters lets us watch as history unfolds before us all over again– and reminds us of the private lives that influence our public histories.
You can find more about Roosevelt and Bowman at the Archives of the American Geographical Society digital collection: https://uwm.edu/lib-collections/agsny/
Taal Volcano, Philippines
by Angie Cope
The Taal Volcano in the Philippines is about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon. The volcano sent a plume of ash, steam and rock six to nine miles into the sky with a violent explosion on Sunday, January 12, 2020. The area remains on an alert level four out of five which means a “hazardous eruption” is immenent in a region which is heavily farmed and popular for tourism.
Scientists warned that new fissures were appearing in the ground, and about 50 earthquakes jolted the area in just eight hours on Tuesday, all signs that another, possibly larger eruption was coming.
Around 459,000 people reside within a danger zone with a 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) radius around the volcano, according to a map by the agency, while more than 930,000 people live in a wider 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) danger zone.
Taal has been spewing fountains of red hot lava half a mile high, sparking its own spectacular lightning storms and turning green, tropical vistas grey with ash.
Philippine Islands, west coast of Luzon : Verde Island Passage / [U.S.] Coast and Geodetic Survey 1912
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/6440/rec/30
Philippine Islands, west coast of Luzon : Manila and Subic Bays to Verde Island Passage / published … by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, O.H. Tittmann, Superintendent ; compiled from surveys by the Coast and Geodetic Survey … and from Spanish and other sources 1907
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/6373/rec/4
Progress map of Signal Corps telegraph lines and cables in the Military Division of the Philippines / prepared under the direction of Brigadier General A.W. Greely chief signal officer U.S. Army ; by Major R.E. Thompson Signal Corps, U.S. Army 1903
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/25398/rec/23
City of St. Louis, Missouri
by Angie Cope
City of Lousiville and vicinity population 15,000 and 30,000 buildings, 1869
Louisville, Kentucky was founded in 1778 and named after King Louis XVI of France whose soldiers had assised Americans in the Revolutionary War. Louisville is one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachain Mountains and served historically as a portage city on the Ohio River. Building and maintenance of a canal began in 1826 with the first ship passing through in 1830. This map shows an ambitious new 11 mile canal proposed by the mayor of Louisville in 1869. The then mayor was Joseph H. Bunce who was a steamboat captain living in the Portland District near where the existing canal passed by.
The map promotes the economic prosperity of the city and was distributed by the Morris, Southwick & Co. Real Estate Brokers and Auctioneers. The map ws lithographed by German & Brother, a lithographic firm founded at Louisville in 1854 by Charles W. German (1837-1907) and Philip T. German which later became Falls City Lithographic Co. with Charles German as manager in 1881.
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/…/coll…/agdm/id/21153/rec/15
The man behind the maps : legendary ski artist James Niehues
by Angie Cope
The AGSL ordered a copy of “The man behind the maps : legendary ski artist James Niehues.” The introduction tells about Niehues, his inspirations including his mentor and friend, Bill Brown. The book details Niehues’s process and includes over 200 pages of color illustrations of Niehues’ mountain maps. Beautifully colored images of Niehues’s maps are included in the book from the United States, Canada, Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Serbia. This is a beautiful book, that, yes, smells great. It can be purchased here: https://jamesniehues.com/pages/the-man-behind-the-map
Mount Vesuvius, Italy
by Angie Cope
Vesuvius is a volcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 5.6 miles east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. The height of the main cone has been constantly changed by eruptions but was 4,203 feet in 2010.
Vesuvius was formed as a result of the collision of the African and the Eurasian tectonic plates. The infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae, as well as several other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of 21 miles, erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 7.8 × 105 cubic yards per second.
Vesuvius has erupted many times since then and is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Today, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the population of 3,000,000 people living near enough to be affected, with 600,000 directly in the danger zone.
Here is an image shared by Google from the International Space Station showing Mount Vesuvius as the large, black, circular area. Naples, Italy shines bright at night and the different colors of light reflect some of the area’s history – mercury vapor bulbs in green, and sodium bulbs in yellow-orange.
Here is a map donated to the AGS of NY in 1918 from Allison Armour showing Mount Vesuvius in 1908. Il Vesuvio / Istituto Geografico Militare
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/3379/rec/1
Here is another view of Moutn Vesuvius on this 1913 map of Campania, Italy
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/15436/rec/69
Carta fisica-corografica della Campania / a tinte ipsometriche, curata dal Prof. A. Ghisleri ; costrutta ed eseguita nell’Off. Cartogr. Nani & Longhi ; proprieta Artistico-Letteraria ; Ditta G.B. Paravia & C. ; lit. Bolis 1913
The Writer’s Map – an atlas for creative storytellers
by Angie Cope
The Writer’s Map is an atlas of the journeys that our most creative storytellers have made throughout their lives. This magnificent collection encompasses not only the maps that appear in their books but also the many maps that have inspired them, the sketches that they used while writing, and others that simply sparked their curiosity.
Philip Pullman recounts the experience of drawing a map as he set out on one of his early novels, The Tin Princess. Miraphora Mina recalls the creative challenge of drawing up ”The Marauder’s Map” for the Harry Potter films. David Mitchell leads us to the Mappa Mundi by way of Cloud Atlas and his own sketch maps. Robert Macfarlane reflects on the cartophilia that has informed his evocative nature writing, which was set off by Robert Louis Stevenson and his map of Treasure Island. Joanne Harris tells of her fascination with Norse maps of the universe. Reif Larsen writes about our dependence on GPS and the impulse to map our experience. Daniel Reeve describes drawing maps and charts for The Hobbit film trilogy. This exquisitely crafted and illustrated atlas explores these and so many more of the maps writers create and are inspired by—some real, some imagined—in both words and images.
Amid a cornucopia of 167 full-color images, we find here maps of the world as envisaged in medieval times, as well as maps of adventure, sci-fi and fantasy, nursery rhymes, literary classics, and collectible comics. An enchanting visual and verbal journey, The Writer’s Map will be irresistible for lovers of maps, literature, and memories—and anyone prone to flights of the imagination.
Huw Lewis-Jones is a historian of exploration with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was formerly curator at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, and the National Maritime Museum, London. His books include Arctic, Ocean Portraits, In Search of theSouth Pole, The Conquest of Everest, The Crossing of Antarctica, and Across the Arctic Ocean. Most recently, he is also coauthor of the internationally bestselling Explorers’ Sketchbooks.
End of Semester Me Time
by Angie Cope
If you’re a frequent visitor to the AGS Library, you know that you can’t find all our materials by searching in the UWM Libraries online catalog. We have an old fashioned card catalog that does list everything acquired between 1851 and 1978. Most things acquired between 1980 and 2019 are cataloged, but staff are still hard at work getting all 500,000 maps and 12,000 atlases cataloged in the digital environment.
During each semester break, I like to tackle some of the cataloging of these older materials and this winter break I’m indulging in some me time and focusing on a region I adore: Scandinavia. Iceland got some attention:
And next I’m traveling to Finland. I think the maps from these areas are simply amazing. Between the color choices and graphics used, I find them some of the most beautiful maps made. I’d like to share a few images with you from our collections in Finland.
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In addition to trying to get everything searchable in an online catalog format, we are also working on getting more and more items scanned and viewable in our Digital Map Collection.
Click here to view the maps of Iceland in the digital collection so far.
Click here to view maps of Finland in the digital collection so far.
Click here to view maps of Norway in the digital collection so far (and my favorite, Vardo).
Click here to view maps of Sweden in the digital collection so far.
And, click here to view maps of Denmark in the digital collection so far.
Salt of the Earth
By Lauren Maddox
Instagram has changed the way we vacation– our destinations don’t just need to look good in person. They also need to look good for the camera. This age of aesthetic vacationing has sent trendy tourists to the salt production operation in Las Coloradas, at the very tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. You’ve actually probably seen these pictures– pretty, bikini-clad women perched on flamingo pool-floaties drifting across the pink, uber-salt water of a man-made salt evaporation pond.
Detail of Los Coloradas 
2004 Map of Yucatan. Click the link to see this map in our Digital Collections!
These places may not be as picturesque as millenial trendsetters make them out to be– in essence, the salt lakes at Los Coloradas are a step in an assembly line. They’re salt evaporation ponds designed to extract sea salt for table salt. Several different colors of salt are harvested from the lakes– though the lakes are actually pink because of the micro-organisms that thrive in highly salinated environments. But the flamingo habitat nearby still seems pretty on brand.
And because of the influx of tourists, the salt production plant has had to put fences around the lakes to keep people from swimming in them. You can still take a tour, but it’s not really the same without the novelty pool-floaty. The ponds aren’t dangerous to swim in, but if you had scratches, it would be a pretty unpleasant and unrefreshing dip in the pool. And this is a food production facility– people swimming in the lakes does seem like a contamination concern.
Roi Et Province in Thailand, 1940. Families turned natural brine into salt using evaporation. Click the link to see this photo in our Digital Collection!
But besides being a great photo-op, salt evaporation and collection has been a center of civilization since antiquity. The oldest known towns in Europe were centered around salt production because salt allowed for the preservation and trading of food across longer distances. The ancient roads that all lead to Rome were first used to transport salt back to the city from the empire’s many, saltier territories. Salt made other ancient empires like Egypt and China stable and prosperous, which created opportunities for technological advancement. And salt’s deep connection to the beginnings of civilization is still visible today– the word salary is derived from the Latin word for salt, English towns with names ending in -wich were named for their connection to salt production, and now Instagram influencers can pose with modern salt production facilities for the aesthetic.
The Salar de Atacama Salt Flat in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. From Mary Light Leader and Dr. Leaders 1937 Collection of photos. Click the link to see this photo in our Digital Collections!
Now salt is pretty cheap– most people have to worry about eating too much salt. But salt production, and the old methods of salt harvesting, are still a key global industry. And a great backdrop for your vacation pics (with the facility’s permission).
Salar del Rincon in Argentina, from Isaiah Bowman’s 1913 Expedition to the Central Andes. Click the link to see this photo in our Digital Collections!
20th Nebenzahl Lectures: The AGSL Goes to Chicago
By Lauren Maddox
Last weekend was the 20th Nebenzahl Lectures that are held every few years at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The 2019 year’s theme was “Redrawing the World: 1919 and the History of Cartography”– which, as you can imagine, was a very exciting topic for staff at the AGSL. The lectures were held over three days and featured 9 different scholars including organizer Dr. Peter Nekola.
On Thursday, attendees visited the AGS Library and enjoyed a presentation by Curator, Marcy Bidney and viewing an exhibit highlighting the role of the AGS at the Paris Peace Conference following WWI. Besides providing thousands of maps, atlases, books and nautical charts from the AGS Library, which were shipped to France for use by the American delegation, the AGS building and its staff were involved in the work of the so-called “Inquiry” which preceded the actual Conference. Starting in November 1917, a team of geographers, historians, regional experts and cartographers worked in secret at the AGS headquarters building, drawing on the library’s vast resources to produce reports and maps for the American negotiators to use at the Peace Conference.
Many of the presenters at the conference, referenced resources held at the AGS Library and used in their research.
AGSL staff: Marcy Bidney, Curator ; Jovanka Ristic, Reference Librarian ; and student interns Georgia Brown and Katie Bischof attended the Lectures in Chicago. The Lectures focused on the 1919 map production boom and how cartographers helped forge the uneasy peace at the Paris Peace Treaties. Particular topics included “Mapping a New African Empire: Britain and Tanganyika Between the Wars” presented by Lindsay Frederick Braun and “Cartographies of Victimhood: Envisioning the Nation after the Paris Peace Treaties of 1919-1920” presented by Jason Hansen. The Lectures were an exciting reason to visit Chicago and the AGSL was proud to participate.
American Geographical Society Library 