1947 Estra Clark Pictorial Map of York, England

Estra Clark (March 13, 1904 - 1993), born Estra Walker, was a York based English school teacher, commercial artist, and pictorial mapmaker active during the middle part of the 20th century. Clark was born in York and gave evidence of her artist gifts early on, winning a local prize at just 15. She went on to study at the London Royal College of Music. She must have switched to visual arts, as by the early 1920s she was attending the York School of Arts and Crafts. Estra became interested in pictorial cartography through a love of architectures and a fascination for the historic buildings of York. Her first map was likely a painting of Ryedale, completed in 1935, but is now alas lost. Her subsequent maps, most issued between 1947 and 1959, focus on York, Yorkshire, and the surrounding cities. Her clients included British Railways. She also completed several pictorial Biblical maps. Estra retired with her husband Isaac Clark to Poppleton, near York, England, in the late 1950s. Her last known map was issued in 1959. More by this mapmaker...