1876 Baker Pictorial 'Porcineograph' Map of the United States (as Pig)

Holy grail of Ge'hog'raphy.

The coveted Porcineograph, in its rare first edition, considered one of the greatest examples of cartographic whimsy ever made! This is a comical 1876 William Emerson Baker chromolithograph pictorial map - geo'hog'raphy - of the United States as a pig. Issued as a party favor for the founding of Baker's 'Sanitary Piggery', the image is not only humorous but also examines the impact of pigs in American history, including their role in the foundation of the Massachusetts Senate and the Declaration of the War of 1812.

A Closer Look

The continental United States is here reimagined as the body of a pig, with its snout at Maine and its tail in 'Alas-queue'; the legs are represented by Florida and Baja California, with a 'ghost' leg stretching across the Pacific to Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands (which are appropriately illustrated as sandwiches), and another 'ghost' leg resting on Cuba, illustrated as a sausage.

Portraying the 'gehography' of the United States, this broadside was given out as a 'good-cheer souvenir' for a party held to launch a new kind of pig farm, featuring controlled diets and ultra-clean housing, dubbed the 'Sanitary Piggery'. The party also coincided with the Bunker Hill Centennial.

The whole is framed by the state seals, and each is captioned by, supposedly, the most popular pork dish in each state. In the lower left and right corners, vignettes illustrate pig-related incidents that directly impacted the course of events. This first edition is notable as it was available only to guests of the 'Sanitary Piggery' groundbreaking event. The second edition was issued for sale to the general public.

The Sanitary Piggery

William Emerson Baker envisioned his 'Sanitary Piggery,' established at Ridge Hill Farms in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1875-76, as a model for reforming both animal husbandry and public health. At a time when pigs commonly scavenged in streets or lived in filthy pens, Baker proposed raising them in scrupulously clean surroundings, with fresh bedding (including silk pillows), exercise, medical care, and controlled diets of wholesome food - think Kobe beef but pork. Healthy animals, he reasoned, would produce safer meat and reduce people's exposure to parasites and disease. The piggery thus embodied a preventive principle that remained strikingly novel: it was wiser and less costly to eliminate disease at its source than to treat its human consequences later.

Baker presented this serious reform project with characteristic extravagance and humor. On June 19, 1875, he invited roughly 2,500 guests to celebrate the laying of the piggery's cornerstone. Visitors received this map, his Porcineograph. Tales of pigs resting on silk-covered beds further dramatized his insistence that swine were naturally cleaner than their reputation suggested. Such theatrical touches made Ridge Hill Farms an educational spectacle: amusement attracted an audience, while the spectacle carried a lesson about cleanliness, humane treatment, and the purity of the national food supply.

The Sanitary Piggery was therefore more than an eccentric rich man's novelty. It belonged to Baker's broader vision of 'hygienic farming,' in which scientific management of livestock, careful food preparation, and public education would improve society's health. Although his methods could appear whimsical, his underlying concerns anticipated later developments in veterinary inspection, disease control, and pure-food regulation. Baker wanted the piggery to demonstrate that public health began long before food reached the table, with the conditions in which animals were raised and fed. Curiously, Baker himself did not eat pork and was likely a committed vegetarian.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process uses multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Generally, a chromolithograph begins with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors are layered.   Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color can be blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by William Emerson Baker in 1876. It was printed in Boston by Forbes Lithographing. There are two states; this is the first edition. The second edition, which followed in the same year, is marginally larger, with a different color palette and additional text at the bottom, including a note from the author. The Porcineograph is the most desirable of the 3 pig-themed pictorial maps issued in the 19th century. All examples are extremely rare.

Cartographers

William Emerson Baker (May, 1828 - January 5, 1888) was a successful American businessman and activist. Baker was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts and as a young man entered into a business partnership with Boston tailor William Grover. Together, the pair created the Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Company, which produced accessibly-priced sewing machines for home use. These units were so successful that Baker retired in 1868, then just forty, already a very rich man. Upon his retirement, Baker bought nearly 800 acres of land in the southwest corner of Needham, Massachusetts. His estate became known by two names - Ridge Hill Farms and the Baker Estate. Over the course of the ensuing twenty years, Baker installed over 100 amusements, attractions, and exhibits on his estate, which included a museum of industry, two bear pits for his pets, a pleasure lake, an underground crystal grotto featuring the Forty Thieves, restaurants, saloons, and a 222-room luxury hotel. At heart, Baker was an activist. Even though his estate appeared on the surface to be simply an amusement park, each attraction served a purpose and the estate became the embodiment of Baker's personal, 'often radical and always provocative', opinions. Baker even opened what he dubbed a 'Sanitary Piggery' on his estate in an effort to convince society that cleanly-produced food and public sanitation could help eliminate disease (a radical notion at the time). The pigs in the 'Sanitary Piggery' were kept in strictly clean conditions and fed wholesome food. There were even rumors that each pig was provided with a bed and silk sheets! After Baker's death in 1888, his wife sold Ridge Hill Farms. There were efforts to keep the attractions up and running, but fires and lack of funds eventually led to their closure. Today, the land is mostly residential lots, leaving few traces of Baker's 'Fairyland of the Beautiful and Bizarre.'   Further Details...

William H. Forbes (1836 - February 3, 1915) was an English-American businessman and printer active in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Forbes was born in Liverpool England and immigrated to the United States at 12 years old. In the United States, he lived with Quaker relatives at Milton-on-the-Hudson, who provided him with a top-notch education. Forbes apprenticed as lithographer under H. A. Strong in New York. Following his maturity, he relocated to Boston in 1861, founding William H. Forbes and Company shortly after, in 1862. Forbes proved an excellent lithographer and savvy businessman. He reorganized his growing printing concern in 1875, incorporating as Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company in 1875. They focused on lithography, embossing, Albertype process printing, typesetting, copper and steel plate printing, and photolithography. At its height, Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company had over 70 presses located in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London, and staffed more than 600 workers, including 60 designers, artists, engravers, and lithograph artists. By 1881, Forbes himself had taken a back seat, working as the company treasurer, with William P. Hunt serving as president. In his personal life Forbes was well liked. He married the sister of well-known lithographer Louis Prang. After his death, the firm was taken over by his son, William S. Forbes. During World War II they were major printers of Allied military currency, producing more than 4 billion notes. The firm went out of business in the second half of the 20th century.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Slight foxing. Remains of older foil backing on verso - likely added as a protective isolation barrier by a conservator or framer in the 1940s.

References

OCLC 51154566.

CartoCuriosity Podcast