Discovery of a New Continent: Or, long Winter evening's amusement.
- Title:
- Discovery of a New Continent: Or, long Winter evening's amusement.
- Alternate Title:
- Discovery of a New Continent
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Other Creators:
- J. V. Quick, London publisher, A.V. Blake; Burgess, Stringer & Co.; & C.S. Francis, New York, publishers.
- Date:
- 1844
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2435.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2435_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1800 - 1869
- Subject:
- Allegorical
Alcohol - Measurement:
- 20 x 27 on sheet 49 x 37 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This early temperance broadside features a large woodcut allegorical map. At the top and left is the Continent of Poverty, with Tipplers' City and the County of Strife. The Ocean of Intemperance divides this land from the Continent of Plenty, with the City of Sobriety, at the bottom right. The plight of the intemperate is illustrated with three police stations, a workhouse, a madhouse, jail, state prison and the gallows. Two woodcuts illustrate the degraded men and women of Tipplers' City, while two show their elegant counterparts from the City of Sobriety.
The map is accompanied by extensive text intended to provide a "long Winter evening's amusement." The first block of text describes in detail each of the features of the map along the voyage from Lake Animal Appetites through the County of Strife to a host of bad ends in Poverty Bay, Destitution Sounds, Thieves Bay, Robbers Sound, or Murderers Gulf. An individual who "wishes to escape the certain ruin that lays before him" must "hoist a signal" for the Lighthouse ("alias the Bible and the Cross") marking the narrow entrance from the Ocean of Intemperance to the Sea of Total Abstinence. For the others, "Thirty thousand lives are lost every year on the Rocks, Shoals and Quicksands of that part of the Ocean of Intemperance which lies within the united states of Great Britain and Ireland."
The second text block is "A brief account of Tippler's City and Its Inhabitants," explaining in detail the appalling squalor in which they live. The author concludes that "as it is no easy task to describe them and their costume, I have given a drawing [at the left] which shows their appearance and disgusting habits. As for the inhabitants of the City of Sobriety, they require no description, their costume and appearance being better described by the pencil [drawing at the right] than the pen."
The map appears to be taken from a cruder version that appeared in "The Temperance Almanac for the Year of our Lord 1835 . . . Prepared and Published under the Direction of the Executive Committee of the New-York State Temperance Society." This broadside was originally published by J. V. Quick in London and reprinted in New York. Quick produced a number of other broadsides during this period, not only espousing temperance (e.g., "The Vices of the Gin Shop, Public Houses, and Tavern Dissected," 1833) but reporting on lurid criminal matters (e.g., "The Life and Execution of John Pegsworth," 1837). This broadside is undated but includes the names and addresses of its three sellers in New York; from a review on OCLC, it appears that the only year in which these three parties were all doing business at these addresses was 1844. I've been unable to locate any other copy.
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.