February, 1918 
41 
n—■firt r iif 
The decorative value of a pictorial map is at once obvious when one views this map of Venice, 
painted by Antonio Canaletto early in the 18 th Century. Courtesy of John Wanamaker 
THE MAP AS A WALL DECORATION 
Pictorial Maps of the Old and New Schools—Their Color Value and Decorative Interest—Various 
Ways in Which They May he Displayed to Advantage 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
T HE decorative qualities of maps were 
more appreciated in other ages than in 
our own. The Romans sculptured them in 
marble and used them as mural embellish¬ 
ments in public places; and we know that the 
Aztecs had several monumental 
and decorative maps which great¬ 
ly impressed the Spanish con¬ 
querors of Mexico. The medi¬ 
aeval cartographers and monkish 
illuminators imparted a highly 
decorative character to their 
maps; at a later date the old en¬ 
gravers and painters duly recog¬ 
nized the decorative claims of 
maps; later still, our grand¬ 
mothers and great-grandmothers 
worked maps in the manner of 
samplers, on bolting cloth or 
satin with sundry accessory 
adornments, and then framed 
them to hang upon the wall. So 
much for a glimpse at precedent. 
The map as a wall adornment 
is readily adaptable to manifold 
treatments and is easily suited to 
any style of decoration. A few 
architects and decorators, both in 
England and America, have util¬ 
ized this method of wall embel¬ 
lishment with happy results, and 
other decorators to whom the 
writer has broached the subject 
have seized upon the idea with 
avidity, being instantaneously 
convinced of its applicability. A 
map, properly handled, may ap¬ 
propriately be used to fill a chim¬ 
ney-piece panel, as an overdoor decoration, as 
a central feature in a wall space, or a series 
of maps similarly treated might be employed 
as a frieze or to fill a succession of like-sized 
wall panels. The places in which map deco¬ 
rations may most suitably be displayed are 
halls, dining rooms, libraries or living rooms, 
but special conditions may well suggest their 
use elsewhere also. 
There are varieties in maps that most peo¬ 
ple dream not of until the subject 
is forced upon their notice. Quite 
apart from the general map of a 
number of countries together, or 
of a single country or of a special 
portion of some country—the sorts 
with which we are most common¬ 
ly familiar—there are the maps 
of towns or cities; maps of 
sounds or bays, if one happens 
to live by the water side; maps 
of roads in a given district, if one 
is an enthusiastic motorist; maps 
of farms or estates which carry 
a peculiarly intimate and personal 
association; in short, a wide 
range of map possibilities, any 
one of which may be given a 
highly decorative presentation 
and lifted entirely out of the 
realm of the prosaic without in 
the least affecting its accuracy or 
practical utility, and any one of 
which may be adjusted to the 
hobby of its possessor. 
It is a great mistake to fancy 
that a map must needs be an un¬ 
inviting display of blobs of crude 
color enmeshed in a maze of criss¬ 
cross lines. Even granting that, 
for purposes of meticulous ex¬ 
actitude, a portion of the map be 
(Continued on page 64) 
A map of the town of Plainfield, New Jersey, recently executed by 
W. Lawrence Bottomley, architect, for the new Plainfield Town Hall 
