1931 Miguel Gomez Medina Pictorial Map of Mexico

Celebrated Mexican artist Miguel Gomez Medina.

This is a rare 1931 Miguel Gómez Medina pictorial map of Mexico. Depicting the entire country and beautifully illustrated, Medina seamlessly blends Mexico's culture, agriculture, and industry into a coherent and attractive whole. Mayan ruins are illustrated in the Yucatan Peninsula, highlighting Mexican history. Oranges, cacao, bananas, pineapple, coffee, and cotton are among the crops included to emphasize agriculture, while fish, sharks, oysters, and other sea life show the bounty of Mexico's coastal waters. Factories and oil derricks promote Mexican industry. Even Mexican terrain is depicted, from the deserts of the north to the jungles of the south.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Miguel Gómez Medina and published by Eugenio Fischgrund in 1931. We note a single other cataloged example, part of the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University.

Cartographers

Miguel Gómez Medina (fl. c. 1930 – 1960) was a Mexican illustrator and graphic artist active in the first half of the 20th century to about 1960. Gomez is the most significant Mexican proponent of the Golden Age of Pictorial Mapmaking (c. 1920 – 1960) with several significant large format pictorial maps of various parts of Mexico and Guatemala to his name. Medina was a versatile artist capable of work in a variety of different styles, with some of his work being akin to English pictorial map pioneer MacDonald Gill and other pieces reminiscent of the French illustrator Lucian Boucher. In addition to large format poster maps, Medina also issued map postcards, including one of Guatemala and another of Canada. Medina's maps and postcards were typically published by Athenaeum Fischgrund Publishing. Little is known of Medina's personal life.   Further Details...

Eugenio Fischgrund (1905 - 1980) was a travel writer and publisher of posters, books and postcards active in Mexico City. Fischgrund owned several imprints, including Athenaeum Fischgrund Publishing, which he founded c. 1930, and Editorial de Arte. He was also one of the first to publish and distribute prints of works by Mexican artists in the United States. Some of his artists included Diego Riviera (1886 – 1957), Charles X. Carlson (1902–1991), F. Lugo, Rafael Martínez Padilla (1878–1958), and Miguel Gomez Medina.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Backed on archival tissue for stability. Blank on verso.

References

Rumsey 11451.000.