1942 AAA Pictorial Road Map of Florida

Florida-aaa-1942-2
$200.00
While You Are In Florida See These Outstanding Attractions. - Main View
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1942 AAA Pictorial Road Map of Florida

Florida-aaa-1942-2

Features illustrations of ephemeral tourist attractions, such as Marine Studios and Clyde Beatty's Jungle Zoo.
$200.00

Title


While You Are In Florida See These Outstanding Attractions.
  1942 (undated)     23.25 x 17 in (59.055 x 43.18 cm)     1 : 1800000

Description


This is a c. 1942 American Automobile Association pictorial tourist road map of Florida. Appealing vignettes and other illustrations beckon tourists to visit Florida and explore all it offers.
Bringing Tourists to Florida
A map occupies the center of the sheet, and cities, towns, and major state and national highways are illustrated and labeled. Lakes, rivers, several state parks, national forests, and Everglades National Park also appear. An artistically stunning border highlights nine different tourist sites and historic locations throughout Florida, along with the ever-popular pastimes of sunning on the beach and playing golf. Each site featured in the border is also identified on the map by a green text box. Only a handful of these sites are still in operation today. Among these are the Palatka Ravine Gardens in Palatka, originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration in 1934, which are now known as Ravine Gardens State Park, and the Singing Tower is located in the Bok Tower Gardens north of Lake Wales, Florida. Although time has changed St. Petersburg and Daytona Beach, both remain major tourist destinations that draw millions of tourists per year, and the Overseas Highway is still in operation between Miami and Key West.
Long Gone Tourist Attractions
The Oriental Gardens in Jacksonville, Marine Studios in Marineland, and Clyde Beatty's Jungle Zoo, located outside Fort Lauderdale, however, no longer exist. The Oriental Gardens were originally started by George W. Clark, a Riverside resident and botany enthusiast, who began planting his overflow plants on a vacant bluff overlooking the St. Johns River. Eventually, his private 18-acre estate would be opened to the public and, from 1937 until 1954, served as a major tourist attraction in Jacksonville known as the Oriental Gardens. Today, few remnants of the gardens remain, most of which are hidden away on private home lots. Clyde Beatty's Jungle Zoo was operated by Clyde Raymond Beatty (June 10, 1903 - July 19, 1965), a popular circus performer and famous television and radio personality, near Fort Lauderdale from December 1939 until 1945, when tightening zoning regulations effectively evicted him from the site. Marine Studios, later known as Marineland, was by far the most successful and longest-lived of the now-defunct tourist attractions highlighted here. Founded in 1938 along Highway A1A south of St. Augustine, Marine Studios operated until the mid-1980s, when it was sold by its founder, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. Marineland had been the first of its kind, an attraction that brought ocean animals into contact with humanity through oceanariums and several daily shows. The park was reopened in March 2006 after extensive renovations and is now a subsidiary of the Georgia Aquarium.
Publication History and Census
This map was published by the American Automobile Association in the early 1940s.

Cartographer


The American Automobile Association (March 4, 1902 - present), better known as AAA ('Triple-A'), is a federations of motor clubs throughout America. A privately held national member association, AAA boasts over 58 million member in the United States and Canada. Founded on March 4, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, AAA was originally created in response to a lack of roads and highways that were suitable for cars by nine individual motor clubs, including the Chicago Automobile Club, Automobile Club of America, and Automobile Club of New Jersey. AAA began publishing road maps in 1905 and hotel guides in 1917. More by this mapmaker...

Condition


Very good. Light wear along original fold lines. Closed edge tear professionally repaired on verso. Text on verso.

References


Tampa Bay History Center, Touchton Map Library #L2016.060.007.