1940 Joly Lindgren Pictorial Map of the Grand Coulee Dam, Washington (Silkscreen)

In the year the Grand Coulee Dam started producing electricity.

This is Joly Lindgren's 1940 pictorial map of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, Washington. This is a scarce silkscreened example. It is the second of Lindgren's two maps of the Grand Coulee Dam. That Lindgren reissued this map in 1940 is no mistake, for it was that year when the dam began operating and generating electricity, transforming not only the physical landscape but also the economic outlook of the entire region. Lindgren hints at this optimism in his humor, 'To the south lies the Columbia Basin 1,200,000 thirsty acres with a faith in the future'.

A Closer Look

Oriented to the North, the map centers on the Grand Coulee, here not yet filled with water. The Grand Coulee, as shown here, was a massive canyon with sheer 600ft walls created by the Missoula Floods, a series of catastrophic floods that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age. When this map was issued in 1940, the first part of the dam was complete, but the second part, which involved filling the Grand Coulee with water from the Columbia River, thus turning it into a massive reservoir, was not completed until 1951, when two secondary dams were finished. Lindgren illustrates a railroad track running along the base of the Canyon, part of the Northern Pacific System. Nearby Moses Coulee, another massive canyon appearing here just to the west of Dry Falls, remains empty today, a hint at what the Grand Coulee must have looked like before the dam. The whole is replete with Lindgren's signature humor.

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam, located on the Columbia River in Washington State, is one of the most ambitious engineering feats of its time. Completed that year as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the dam was built to provide hydroelectric power, flood control, and irrigation for the arid Columbia Basin. At its completion, it was the largest concrete structure in the world and the most powerful hydroelectric facility ever built. The project employed thousands during the Great Depression, serving as a symbol of American ingenuity and recovery. Initially, its power was instrumental in supporting World War II (1939 - 1945) industries, particularly aluminum production and aircraft manufacturing, laying the groundwork for the Pacific Northwest's role in the war effort.

Lindgren - Silkscreened or Not?

In any list or collection of Lindgren Brothers Hysterical Maps, it is essential to distinguish between those that were silkscreened by hand and those that were machine printed. Often, the difference is clear even to the untrained eye; other times, it is less so - generally, when not visually clear, silkscreened maps have richer color, and it is possible to feel the 'texture' of the layered paint. Likewise, defining an 'edition' is difficult and, in some cases, impossible. The most popular Hysterical Maps, such as Yellowstone, were printed in both silkscreen and machine presses, as well as in a variety of color configurations. Likely, the 1936 issues, to follow through with our Yellowstone example, continued to be issued well after that date using a variety of printing techniques due to their extreme popularity. Even within the narrow limits of those Lindgren maps that were silkscreened, we can trace an evolution of the printing techniques as the Lindgren Brothers refined their silkscreening processes and gained access to higher-quality paints, screens, and papers. Nor is it clear that they ever fully gave up on silkscreening; some of their later maps may have been silkscreened as proofs in the initial phase of production and then transitioned to mechanical printing. Other maps give no evidence of having ever been silkscreened, though it is not unlikely that silkscreened proofs or early examples may yet emerge. For collectors interested in adding value to their collections, silkscreened examples must be considered to be of the highest rarity and the gold standard, thus receiving a correspondingly higher market consideration.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Joly Lindgren and hand-printed by silkscreen in 1940. It is the second of two maps of the Grand Coulee Dam issued by Lindgren. Today, it is one of his scarcer maps. We note an example in the David Rumsey Collection.

Cartographer

Lindgren Brothers (1928 – 1971) was a Spokane, Washington, based printer known for issuing humorous souvenir auto decals, maps, and posters. The firm was founded as a sign-painting company by Hjalmer 'Jolly' Lindgren (1895 - September 1952) and his brother Oscar 'Ott' Lindgren (1893 - 1967), born in Wisconsin to Swedish immigrants. Neither brother had middle names when they went off to fight in World War I (1914 - 1818), but as the government required it, they adopted Jolly and Ott, which stuck with them for life. Jolly was in charge of the art department and Ott was in charge of the business aspects of the firm. The company began as printers and sign makers, and also became innovators in silkscreen printing, and as the Great Depression deepened, Jolly began producing 'hysterical maps'. He declared at the time, ‘What this country needs now is something to put a smile on people's faces.' The maps are graphically interesting and intended, as the titles suggest, to amuse. The brothers focused on producing maps of popular tourist attractions, and the great national parks of the West were an obvious choice. They produced maps of Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Glacier, Zion, Bryce Canyon and others through the early 1940s. Following a hiatus during World War II (1939 - 1945), the company began producing car decals, some of which were simplified versions of the ‘hysterical maps'. The company sold more than ten million decals in a good year. In 1949, the company was renamed the Lindgren-Turner Company when their traveling salesman, Theodore 'Ted' Turner, Jr. (1902 - 1989), who had been with the firm since 1930, became a partner. Jolly died unexpectedly at 57 while visiting his daughter in Boise, Idaho. The firm continued under his brother, Oscar. William Shigeo Terao (1915 - 1990), who was hired after World War II by the Lindgrens and eventually became the firm's art director, created two more hysterical maps following Jolly's death. The company's last great success, after the decal market had become too competitive, was a sign that read 'No Trespassing, Survivors will be Prosecuted'. The signs became a massive success, eventually being sold in every Woolworth's department store nationwide - all 2,228 locations. Ott died in 1967 at the age of 74, leaving Turner as the last member of the original team. He, in turn, sold the firm to the Emblem Manufacturing Company based in Los Angeles, in February 1971 and he and his wife moved to New Mexico three years later to be closer to their daughter. Turner wrote a history of the Lindgren-Turner Company during his retirement and died at the age of 87 in 1989.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Some scuffing along original fold lines.

References

Geographicus Lindgren Catalog, #28_1940-SP. Rumsey 6070.000.