This comes from a map on the Railroad Collection at the Library of Congress, Galbraith's railway mail service maps, published in Chicago in 1897 and drawn Frank H. Galbraith. I'm trying to figure out what each of the pictures is for the locations in Hancock County, Illinois. Most I have figured out, but there are a few I don't. Here are the ones I think I get: - Webster--Webster's dictionary (although that Webster had nothing to do with this Webster).
- Burnside--the guy has sideburns
- Plymouth--the Plymouth Rock rooster
- Stillwell--a well
- Warsaw--a saw
- West Point--military cadets
- Star--a star
- Augusta--he's written "June July" above it
I don't get the woman's picture by St. Mary's--is it supposed to be "St. Mary?" The other one I don't get is the ball player near Adrian.
Could it be a refrence for Adrian "Cap" Anson. I saw "anson" written underneath "Adrian" and googled "adrian anson" baseball.
ReplyDeleteDoes it say "Anson" under the picture of the Ball Player? I googled "Adrian ball player illinois" and got these two links:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archive.org/details/ballplayerscaree00anso
http://www.manybooks.net/titles/ansona1965219652.html
"Adrian C. Anson was Manager and Captain of the Chicago Base Ball Club, and was one of baseball's great hitters -- the first to tally over 3,000 career hits."
I'm not that familiar w/ Illinois geography ... does the ball player represent Chicago? A town called "Adrian" or "Anson"?
... quick correction to my last comment ... I see that "Adrian" is the town (Duh) :) Therefore the picture represents one of Illinois' great ballplayers of the time, Adrian Anson, for the town of Adrian.
ReplyDeleteFrank Galbraith wasn't necessarily trying to link specific historical events with the towns on the map. So, you're correct that there is no relationship between "Webster" and the dictionary. His approach was to create visual memory aids for postal clerks studying mail distribution. Some people could link an image with a map location, which facilitated the memorization of where post offices were within a state and what railroad line they were on. For example, a clerk would memorize Colusa-Adrian-Carthage-Basto-West Point-Stillwell as the town order from north to south along the Railway Post Office route in red. Good luck, Frank Scheer, Railway Mail Service Library, fscheer at railwaymailservicelibrary dot org
ReplyDeleteThe ballplayer drawn near Adrian refers to Cap Anson (Adrian Anson) who played for the White Stockings (predecessor to the Chicago Cubs)
ReplyDeleteTo Frank-
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply--I really appreciate the comments. After I posted the image, it "clicked" that the graphics were likely a visual aid to assist with memorization--which made me realize that a few things might be "pop culture" references that I might not immediately recognize.