Map Showing Isle of Pleasure
- Title:
- Map Showing Isle of Pleasure
- Alternate Title:
- Map Showing Isle of Pleasure
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Lawrence, H.J. [Henry Jefferson] ("Heinie")
- Date:
- 1931
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2192.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2192_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1920 - 1939
- Subject:
- Alcohol
Satirical
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 51 x 44 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This large satirical map lampoons Prohibition in its final days, before it was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. The island, in the shape of a human skull, is labeled "State of Inebriation," and the entire map is "replete with anti-prohibition satire, jokes, puns, alcoholic references & liquor names and innumerable double-entendres & word plays." Rod Barron, http://barronmaps.com/us-comic-maps-prohibition-era-1920-1933-part-1-isle-of-pleasure/, accessed August 15, 2016. Barron details a substantial number of these. In the "Prohibition Sea (very little water)" to the left of the island, a sailing ship labeled "18th Amendment" is indeed "Sinking into Oblivion," with a figure labeled "Volstead" clinging to the topmast. Although I'm aware of no maps attacking prohibition before it became the law of the land in 1919, this is not the only satirical map thereafter. See ID #1234, Held, A Map for the "Scofflaw," 1931.
Lawrence had worked on a magazine at the University of Virginia dedicated to "wit, humour and artistic caricature," and was a young architect in Houston at the time he made this map; the "Long Tall" building at the lower right "bears a striking resemblance to" an iconic bank building his firm had completed in 1929. Barron. It is possible that he took much of this map from a little-known 1925 map by Ernest Clegg and Arthur Crisp. Ibid.
The collection includes a number of other Prohibition-related maps; see Subjects > Alcohol.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.