1970 Moffett Bird's-Eye View Map of Greater Los Angeles, California

Dramatic view of Los Angeles and points east.

This is a c. 1970 Jack H. Moffett bird's-eye view map of greater Los Angeles, California. It provides a stunning overview of the region as it struggled to expand against imposing topographic limitations - keenly apparent here.

A Closer Look

This view is oriented towards the east-southeast, adopting a panoramic perspective ranging from the Sierra Nevada in the distance at left with the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Fernando Valley in foreground at left to the Mojave Desert in the east (at top) and through Orange County to the south (at right). Santa Monica Bay and the Palos Verdes Hills occupy the immediate foreground with neighborhoods and cities of the Westside behind them, Downtown Los Angeles behind, and the sprawling suburban landscape of the region spreading out between the coast and the San Gabriel Mountains. Cities are identified throughout, with major highways and roads illustrated. Major landmarks like Disneyland, the Rose Bowl, the L.A. Coliseum, and the Wilson Observatory are labeled, as are several airports and military bases. Some other famous sites are illustrated but not labeled, such as the Hollywood Bowl. Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and Las Vegas are noted on the horizon.

This striking view highlights the topography of Southern California, with hills breaking up what otherwise would be one continuous string of city and suburb. It also captures the greater L.A. area as it neared the culmination of a freeway-building boom that had been underway for years and had also come to define the region's geography. The insatiable need for more housing would, in the following decades, lead to even more suburban development in western San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (the 'Inland Empire') and in northern Los Angeles County (around Palmdale and Lancaster at left here, and Santa Clarita, just beyond the scope of the view to the left).

Publication History and Census

This view was created by Jack H. Moffett and published by Cooper Enterprises. It is undated, but from the freeways and other features present, it can be dated to c. 1970. We note 12 examples cataloged in OCLC, including in the collections at the Library of Congress, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Huntington Library. We also note an example at the David Rumsey Map Collection.

Cartographer

Jack Harold Moffett (September 18, 1922 - December 26, 2008) was an artist based in Los Angeles in the mid-late 20th century. He was born in Visalia, California but as a young boy moved with his family to Alameda County, first Berkeley and then Hayward. In 1940, Moffett returned to Visalia with his parents and soon afterwards he joined the military, stationed at the local Visalia Army Air Field; he eventually reached the rank of Sergeant. After the Second World War, Moffett and his wife Louise (née Lacoste) moved to the Los Angeles region, settling in Huntington Park. A local city directory from 1946 lists him as a cartoonist and the 1950 census noted him as an artist working for the County of Los Angeles. In 1956, Moffett was hired to establish the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Graphics Unit where he designed training manuals and drew composite sketches of cases. Moffett eventually hired assistants (usually sheriffs deputies with artistic talent) and was promoted to Graphic Arts Coordinator, retiring in 1982. The work Moffett began continues within the LASD with the position of Forensic Artist. While engaged in his work for LASD, in the late 1960s to early 1970s Moffett was contracted by Cooper Enterprises of La Jolla to produce a series of stunning bird's-eye views of locations in California and throughout the American West.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Some creasing.

References

Rumsey 11886.000. OCLC 906600681.