Usually Fridays are reserved for vintage school books, or occasionally, just children's books, but since atlases are often found in schools, I thought this would be the perfect occasion.
I've always loved maps and atlases. I was fascinated with the giant US and world maps we had in our elementary school classrooms... they pulled down from the top of the blackboard like a movie screen. The colors, borders, lines, rivers, oceans, cities, points of interest, capitals... not to mention, the compass, highways, lakes, mountains, deserts, all were indicated on our maps.
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| Rand McNally atlases |
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| My own atlas. Note how I erased my printed name, and wrote it in cursive. I'm sure I wanted to impress someone! |
When I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, my Mom bought me my own Rand McNally Current Events atlas. It cost her a whopping 50 cents. But I remember how I pored over it, and even wrote a little note on the USSR, voicing my displeasure at the current resident of the Kremlin.
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| A personal note to Kruschev from little me, age 10 or so. |
I've mentioned in a past post that I don't think young people feel the same way about maps as I did, or perhaps you did. I wonder if they really learn how to read a map in school anymore. The internet and GPS systems have made navigation a thing of the past. But to me, they are fascinating.
I have quite a collection of vintage atlases. They range from the 1920s to the 1950s, and there are at least two of them from the WWII years, showing the post-1938 Hitler invasions and European divisions. So fascinating!
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| Literary Guild atlases from the 20s and 30s. |
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| Hammond Atlases |
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| 1925 map of China |
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| 1925 |
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| From a 1950s Hammond travel atlas, showing bus routes |
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| WWII-era map showing Europe and it's war borders. |
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