1934 Clegg Pictorial Map of the New England Coast, America's Cup

Pinnacle of Maritime Racing.

This is a 1934 Ernest Clegg pictorial map of the Atlantic Coast of Rhode Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Block Island, depicting the field of that year's America's Cup yacht race. That year's competition, ultimately won by the American Rainbow, proved to be one of the most controversial in the history of the Cup.

A Closer Look

The map presents a portion of the Atlantic Ocean between Martha's Vineyard and Block Island, the scene of the 1934 race. The starting buoy used for each race, located southeast of Newport, Rhode Island, is indicated with a 10- and 15-mile circles emanating from it and cardinal directions noted. Islands, lighthouses, coastal features such as points, bays, and necks, and some coastal cities and towns are recorded. A block of text above the starting buoy explains the rules of the 1934 race, while other text and illustrations surrounding the map discuss the history of boating and the America's Cup competition in great detail, including a brief description of the previous competitions. Several particularly important ships, including the America for which the competition is named and the 1934 ships Endeavour and Rainbow, are depicted and discussed at bottom.

The America's Cup

The America's Cup is the oldest trophy in international sport, predating the modern Olympics by 45 years. It began in 1851 when the state-of-the-art yacht America, representing the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), crossed the Atlantic to challenge the best of the British yachting community in a race around the Isle of Wight. The America won convincingly, claiming a silver ewer originally known as the One Hundred Guinea Cup or the One Hundred Sovereign Cup (and informally as the Auld Mug). Legend has it that when Queen Victoria asked who was in second place during the race, she was told, 'Your Majesty, there is no second' - a phrase that still defines the winner-take-all spirit of the competition.

Following that victory, the trophy was renamed the America's Cup after the ship (the reason for its seemingly odd grammatical construction) and donated to the NYYC under a Deed of Gift, which established the cup as a 'perpetual challenge trophy for friendly competition between foreign nations.' Unlike many other racing competitions, the America's Cup features only two boats, a defender and a challenger, though since 1970 a separate competition is used to determine the challenger. The Cup competition consists of a series of races, the number of which have varied depending on the year, spread out over several days or weeks, with the winner of more races taking the Cup. The NYYC managed to defend the Cup for a staggering 132 years, the longest winning streak in sporting history, until the Australian yacht Australia II finally broke the spell in 1983 with its revolutionary winged keel. Since then, the race has evolved from a gentleman's pastime into a high-stakes, multi-million dollar pursuit of cutting-edge naval engineering, moving from traditional monohulls to the gravity-defying, foiling catamarans and monohulls seen in modern editions.

The 1934 Competition

The 1934 America's Cup is remembered as one of the most controversial and closely contested matches in the event's history, pitting the British challenger Endeavour, owned by aviation tycoon Thomas Sopwith (1888 - 1989), against the American defender Rainbow, led by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, a member of the Vanderbilt railroad tycoon family and an avid mariner. Endeavour was widely considered the faster boat, boasting superior engineering and a professional crew. The British got off to a dominant start, winning the first two races and putting the New York Yacht Club on the brink of its first-ever defeat. However, the tide turned in Race 3 due to a combination of Vanderbilt and his crew's tactical brilliance and a series of technical and officiating disputes. The most defining moment occurred in Race 4, when a near-collision led Sopwith to fly a protest flag. In a move that still riles sailing historians, the race committee refused to hear the protest on a technicality - Sopwith had signaled his protest at the end of the race according to the British custom, while the American rules required an immediate protest after the incident. Disheartened and outmaneuvered by Vanderbilt's replacement of his amateur crew with professionals, Endeavour lost four straight races. Rainbow secured a 4-2 victory, but the 'Protest of 1934' left a long-lasting strain on Anglo-American sporting relations, with many believing the faster British boat had been robbed of a rightful victory.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Ernest Clegg and printed by the Beck Engraving Company, originally of Philadelphia (the present example has had its margins trimmed, cutting out the publication information at bottom). Produced in a run of only 400 examples, it is scarce to the market and is only noted in institutional collections at the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

Cartographer

Ernest Clegg (1876 - December 7, 1954) was a British cartographer, graphic artist, and calligrapher. Born in the Birmingham suburbs in 1876, Clegg attended grammar school before gaining acceptance into the Birmingham School of Art. Clegg, who established himself as a specialist calligrapher during these years, was greatly influenced by the Victorian Arts and Crafts Movement and drew inspiration from illuminated manuscripts created during the medieval period. He joined the 7th Dragoon Guards at the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, and took part in the British advance into the Orange River Colony and Transvaal as part of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in 1900-1901. Clegg was wounded in 1901 and sent back to Britain, and, following his recovery, he enlisted in the newly-formed South African Constabulary. He was posted to the South African Constabulary's sub-divisional headquarters in Harrismith, Transvaal, in 1902. After a year he was transferred to the offices of the District Engineer of Railways in Harrismith, a post he held for six months. Clegg returned to Birmingham in 1905 and went to work for Tiffany in New York as a jewelry designer in 1909. After the outbreak of World War I, Clegg returned to England and received a commission in the 7th (Service) Battalion, known as The Bedfordshire Regiment ("The Shiny 7th"). He served on the Western Front from early 1915 and was promoted to Major in early 1916. While visiting the HMS Revenge, Clegg became the only British Army officer to witness first-hand the pivotal naval Battle of Jutland. He returned to the Front and was badly wounded in a German artillery barrage in late June 1916, just days before the Battle of the Somme. He had recovered and returned to France by early 1917. By the end of the war, however, Clegg had served in several different Home postings, perhaps an indication of physical and psychological scars suffered during his time in France. After his return to the United States in 1919, Clegg became a well-known figure in the American and British veteran community in New York and soon began attracting clients for his work. He illustrated a limited edition of Canadian war poet John McCrae's In Flanders Fields in 1921 and by the mid-20s was gaining recognition for his decorative illustrations and cartographic work. Clegg created a pictorial map of Charles Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic, and also issued maps for the Americas Cup in 1930, 1934, and 1937, which took place off Newport, Rhode Island. Clegg stayed in New York during most of World War II, but returned to England in late 1944, supposedly as a personal favor to the British Ambassador in Washington, Lord Halifax. He soon began working on a series of pictorial maps of English Counties meant to raise money for the Women's Land Army Benevolent Fund. For unknown reasons, possibly due to post-war shortages of paper, the full series of these maps was never published. Clegg's wife, the Australian actress Rita Holden Macdonnell, whom he married in 1911, passed away in 1949. He never fully recovered after her death, and died in a nursing home in Paignton on December 7, 1954.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Bottom margin trimmed - artist and publisher imprint has been removed.

References

Rumsey 9828.000.