1951 Mills and Wilson Pictorial Map of Greater Miami, Florida

James Calvin Mills (July 20, 1899 - October 25, 1977) was an American publisher, cartographer, tour guide, and hotelier. Born in Luisa, Kentucky, Mills grew up in Ohio before moving to Miami, Florida in 1925. Once in Florida, Mills became involved in real estate and the hotel industry and worked for Kirkeby Hotels and was the manager of the Kenilworth Hotel on Miami Beach in 1962. Mills also founded Mills Publications, Inc. in Miami and published a guidebook entitled 'Highlights of Greater Miami' beginning in 1942 which sold millions of copies. He sold the publishing rights to the guidebook around 1960, and, after leaving the hotel business a few years later, founded United Tours and ran that business for a few years before retiring. Mills married Vera Mae Smith (1912 - 1984) in April 1939, with whom he had one daughter. More by this mapmaker...

Marguerite Carmel Wilson (February 5, 1893 - November 10, 1977), known as Carmel Wilson in art circles, was an American artist and draughtsman. Born in New York City, Wilson née Becht, grew up in Pennsylvania and studied art at the School of Industrial Art at the Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. After receiving her diploma, she volunteered to work in Europe during World War I. Her departure, however, was delayed for a month after she fell ill with influenza, then a global pandemic. She did not leave New York until after Armistice Day and soon after arriving in France was assigned to work in a canteen in Cauterets, in the south of France, where many American soldiers were being sent to recuperate from the flu. Wilson married Enoch Marvin Wilson in 1920, and soon after their marriage Carmel accompanied her husband to Poland, where he worked as an athletic director for the Y.M.C.A and she worked as a hostess in the Y.M.C.A. in Warsaw. After she and her husband returned from Poland, they settled in Coral Gables, Florida, and Wilson resumed her painting and artistic works. She did not work in one specific medium and created work in water colors and oils, as well as charchoal and pen-and-ink sketches. During the Great Depression, Wilson worked as a WPA artist. Over the course of her career, Wilson created several pictorial maps which were used published on postcards and in brochures in the 1930s and produced other later i nthe 1950s, one of which appeared in J. Calvin Mills' 'Highlights of Greater Miami' guidebook. She was a member of the Women's Overseas Service League of Miami. Learn More...