A Cartograph of the Major Philippine Islands. “The Riviera of the Orient”

Description

original colour lithograph, with verso text and views of “Picturesque Manila”; “Birds-eye-view of Manila from U.S. Army Plane. and Manila Hotel”. RARE.

Marvelous whimsical vintage map of the Philippine Islands by Ruth Taylor White. The map shows the archipelago highlighted on a deep blue ground within a circular porthole. Surrounding this are details of Japan, China, Indo-China, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Australia and New Guinea. Includes many brightly coloured vignettes of native costumes, activities, wildlife, and places of interest depicted throughout the map. Relief shown pictorially. Includes legend: “All distances are from Manila. There are 7,083 Philippine Islands. 466 are over one square mile in area.”. Ruth Taylor’s maps have become increasingly rare. Her whimsical maps are bold, colourful, and full of life; showing the local feel, cultural stereotypes, industries and activities of the area. She was an American pictorial mapmaker, daughter of the painter John S. Taylor. Her interest in cartographic mapmaking was probably inspired by her sister Della Taylor Hoss, also an important pictorial cartographer. White’s most famous work, a pictorial atlas entitled “Our USA: A Gay Geography” was published in 1935, filled with ‘cartography ’ of each state, which she published with her brother Frank Taylor.