Catalogue of a touring exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, June 20-September 20, 2015; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, November 7, 2015-January 18, 2016; and Pinacoteca do Estado de Saao Paulo, Saao Paulo, February 27-May 29, 2016.

Instructive, amusing, colorful—pictorial maps have been used and admired since the first medieval cartographer put pen to paper depicting mountains and trees across countries, people and objects around margins, and sea monsters in oceans. More recent generations of pictorial map artists have continued that traditional mixture of whimsy and fact, combining cartographic elements with text and images and featuring bold and arresting designs, bright and cheerful colors, and lively detail. In the United States, the art form flourished from the 1920s through the 1970s, when thousands of innovative maps were mass-produced for use as advertisements and decorative objects—the golden age of American pictorial maps. Picturing America is the first book to showcase this vivid and popular genre of maps. Geographer Stephen J. Hornsby gathers together 158 delightful pictorial jewels, most drawn from the extensive collections of the Library of Congress. In his informative introduction, Hornsby outlines the development of the cartographic form, identifies several representative artists, describes the process of creating a pictorial map, and considers the significance of the form in the history of Western cartography. Organized into six thematic sections, Picturing America covers a vast swath of the pictorial map tradition during its golden age, ranging from “Maps to Amuse” to “Maps for War.” Hornsby has unearthed the most fascinating and visually striking maps the United States has to offer: Disney cartoon maps, college campus maps, kooky state tourism ads, World War II promotional posters, and many more. This remarkable, charming volume’s glorious full-color pictorial maps will be irresistible to any map lover or armchair traveler.

To celebrate the centennial of America's National Park Service, Picturing America's National Parks brings together some of the finest landscape photography in the history of the medium, from America's most magnificent and sacred environments. Photography has played an integral role in both the formation of the National Parks and in the depiction of America itself, through this natural resource. From Yosemite to the most recent 2013 addition of Pinnacles National Park in California, America's National Parks have been enjoyed through photographs for over 100 years. This book traces that history and delights readers with stunning photographs of the best American landscapes. An informative essay and commentary from curator Jamie M. Allen unfold the role of photography in promoting America's national heritage, land conservation and wildlife preservation. Featuring the historic work of masters such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, William Henry Jackson, Edward Weston and Minor White, as well as contemporary greats such as Lee Friedlander, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld, this volume offers a powerful look at America's National Parks and pays homage to a practice that has defined the way we see America, particularly the American West. The parks included are Acadia National Park (ME), Arches National Park (UT), Badlands National Park (SD), Big Bend National Park (TX), Bryce Canyon National Park (UT), Capital Reef National Park (UT), Canyonlands National Park (UT), Crater Lake National Park (OR), Death Valley National Park (CA and NV), Denali National Park (AK), Glacier National Park (MT), Glacier Bay National Monument (AK), Grand Canyon National Park (AZ), Grand Teton National Park (WY), Great Basin National Park (NV), Great Sand Dunes National Park (CO), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NC and TN), Joshua Tree National Park (CA), Kenai Fjords National Park (AK), Mount Rainer National Park (WA), Olympic National Park (WA), Redwood National Park (CA), Rocky Mountain National Park (CO), Yellowstone National Park (WY), Yosemite National Park (CA) and Zion National Park (UT).

Picturing America: Photography and the Sense of Place argues that photography is a prevalent practice of making American places. Its collected essays epitomize not only how pictures situate us in a specific place, but also how they create a sense of such mutable place-worlds. Understanding photographs as prime sites of knowledge production and advocates of socio-political transformations, a transnational set of scholars reveals how images enact both our perception and conception of American environments. They investigate the power photography yields in shaping our ideas of self, nation, and empire, of private and public space, through urban, landscape, wasteland and portrait photography. The volume radically reconfigures how pictures alter the development of American places in the past, present, and future.

Shows maps of the United States of America and other geographical areas of the world.