A Hysterical Map of the Yellowstone Park with Apologies to the Park.
Spokane, WA: Lindgren Bros. 1936. Color pictorial map (16 1/4" x 16"). Illustrated with geysers, mountains, lakes, roads and other features, and filled with cartoonish figures, jokes and puns; includes original mailer envelope with "Haynes Inc., Yellowstone Park, Wyoming" printed in lower left corner. Hatched and scratched by Jolly Lindgren. Old fold lines, as issued. Beginning with the Yellowstone map, Jolly developed a standardized format with a bold blue border incorporating the title, yellow denoting land (because of Yellowstone), red for roadways, black for text, and accents of green and blue. This style and color scheme became Jolly's signature style and was continued on all of his Hysterical maps of National Parks.(Picturing America pg. 66). Item #21690
Lindgren Brothers was founded by Hjalmer "Jolly" and his brother, Oscar "Ott" in Spokane, WA, operating from 1928 to 1971. By all accounts, the brothers were hard-working and creative, specializing in tourist promotional items such as maps, posters, postcards and auto decals. It was during their business struggles in the depths of the Great Depression that they came up with the idea of these "hysterical" maps. As Jolly said “What this country needs now is something to put a smile on people’s face,” In the early days, upon receiving an order for multiple copies of the same artwork, through trial and error, they became pioneers in screen printing. Over time, they produced a variety of "hysterical" maps; their first was of Spokane and they branched out to include Yellowstone, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Utah, Grand Coulee Dam, Death Valley National Monument and more. On Sept. 15, 1940, the Spokesman ran an article headlined: “ ‘Hysterical Maps’ Are Popular” reading “ ‘Hysterical Maps,’ born of depression and reared in ironical defiance of slack business, have attained national recognition. They can now be listed with the Spokane-made products that circulate throughout the United States. They are ‘cockeyed maps,’ ‘drawn in broken English,’ by Jolly Lindgren, geographically correct but amusingly exaggerated.”.
Price: $575.00