This postcard map promotes the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal and the recovery of San Francisco from the earthquake and fire of 1906. The planning for the Exposition actually began in 1904. Lipsky 2005, 21. This map was created in 1910, and the copy here was published no later than June 1911 (as evidenced by the postage cancellation on the verso). No doubt because of the attractiveness of the design, this map has been repeatedly reprinted into the 21st century.
The image of the two women has been called emblematic of the "gendered rhetoric of the contemporary discourse about building the Panama Canal. . . . the women, who are about to kiss, will soon abandon the anomaly of the slender isthmus and welcome the roar of manly progress in the Canal Zone." Moore 2013, 47-48. 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.
