Preview
Identifier
metapth193454
Description
Even in the modern era, producers of maps continued to use imagery based upon classical mythology or religion to communicate ideas with viewers. This railroad map of Texas employed an image that included Mercury or Hermes, god of travelers and communication, to promote tourism, real estate, and immigration. Soaring through the sky above stage coaches and telegraph poles, the god may be identified by his characteristic winged helmet or petasus, winged feet or sandals, and caduceus (winged staff with two serpents twined around it). The cartouche originated with German-American painter, illustrator, and cartoonist Thomas Nast who used it also as a frontispiece for Albert D. Richardson’s book Beyond the Mississippi, published in 1867. In addition to Mercury, Nast’s image includes animals and a Native-American family fleeing before a speeding locomotive. The latter theme was a popular one that year: At least two other paintings, including one by Nast’s teacher Theodore Kaufmann, featured Indians or animals in front of speeding locomotives along with the phrase “Westward the Star of Empire” in their title. Viewers undoubtedly associated such images with the notion of “Manifest Destiny” – that God willed the nation to reach the Pacific -- which originated in the mid-1840s and which was well-established in popular culture by the 1860s. The images also recall the effects of the industrial revolution, such as the notion or “Gospel” of progress, along with faster communication, cheaper production, new methods of commercial advertising or boosterism, and the eradication of “primitive” cultures. Advertisers’ often exaggerated appeals to immigrants were occasionally couched in biblically-inspired phrases similar to those of the Israelite spies sent out to report on the Promised Land of Canaan, recorded in the book of Numbers, who declared it “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Archival Date
1872
Location
75/10
Collection Name
Cartographic Connections
Collection Number
310013
Publisher
University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
Original Format
Map
File Format
JPG
Rights
Any use of content downloaded or printed from this site is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact Special Collections
Subjects
Texas
Item Type
image
Names
Nast, Thomas (1840-1902)
Subjects
Texas