A Road Map of Life
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- Title:
- A Road Map of Life
- Alternate Title:
- A Road Map of Life
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Simpson
- Other Creators:
- H. O. Stone & Co., publisher
- Date:
- 1924
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2530.01
- Style/Period:
- 1920 - 1939
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Allegorical
Conduct of Life
Money & Finance
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 23 x 143 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This 1924 Road Map of Life offers guidance on how to invest wisely, avoid financial pitfalls, and reach "Easy Street" at the "Sunset of Life," at a time when "82% Die Penniless." It is a promotional folding brochure for the Chicago firm of H.O. Stone & Co., Investment Bonds & Mortgages, offering the reader "free and without obligation, our famous booklets showing how to build a fortune."
The map (ID #2530.01) begins at birth with a road sign showing "To Independence. Keep to Main Highway." That highway runs through the center of the map and includes references to The Road of Right Living - Without Detours - Thrift Without Privation - Safe Investment Without Setbacks, Depreciation or Loss of Money, all ending in Financial Independence, a Happy Home, and the Good Things of Life. Along the side of the Main Highway are desirable milestones: lessons from mother and school, marriage, My Own Store and home.
But the side roads are treacherous. Extravagance Road and the Road to Nowhere lead to various evils, including pool, billiards, gambling, borrowing to buy a car, no savings plan, high-flying speculation, having a good time while young, and Chicken Dinners. At the ends of these roads are Bankruptcy Gulch and drowning in the Straights of Failure.
On the verso (ID #2530.02) are sketches of the bust of H.O. Stone at the Chicago Historical Society; his original store, opened in 1844; the building housing his real estate investment business in 1861; the first offices of H.O. Stone & Co. in 1887; the company's "larger, more attractive offices" in 1907; its "extensive space" following 1917; and its "new home," the H. O. Stone Building at the corner of Clark and Madison Streets, "the financial hub of Chicago." Interspersed with these illustrations are a series of slogans, including: Busy Dollars Build Big Fortunes; Home for Busy Dollars; Best Security for Busy Dollars; and Bonds That Never Lost a Dollar.
H.O. Stone's assurances of safety and security failed during the depression that followed. The company was ordered into receivership (Bankruptcy Gulch?) in the fall of 1930 amid charges of "gross mismanagement of funds" and allegations of "sale of worthless stock." The following year, federal prosecutors were reportedly gathering "evidence of possible mail fraud with a view to presenting the matter to the Federal grand jury." New York Times, July 12, 1931, p. 20.
For other maps in the collection related to fraudulent or suspicious financial transactions, Search > fraud.
The collection includes a number of other allegorical and satirical maps with the same theme (Search > "Conduct of Life"), but none that were promotional literature for a commercial firm.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.