The Famous Hysterical Map of Yellowstone Park with Apologies to the Park Including a few minor ? Changes. Smilage Guaranteed. A cheerful 1936 pictorial map of Yellowstone Park, hatched and scratched by the American printer and humorist Jolly Elmer Lindgren. The map depicts the whole of Yellowstone Park with a richly humorous array of vignettes and annotations. Major roadways through the park are marked in red with important locations, topography, and more. As the title suggests, smilage is guaranteed to the viewer. Some of the amusing annotations include: Brimstone Basin (Hell for Certain) Gibbons Falls (Are ya Hurt?) Grand Canyon (Don’t Think it Ain’t) Wahb Springs (Just a Little Cold in the Head) A topical comment seen on the map stands out. In the upper right a giant mosquito with a speech bubble states, Looks like a New Deal for the Park a reference to to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Although the country as a whole was suffering from the Great Depression, the national parks, as part of the New Deal program received unprecedented support. Many of the most popular New Deal programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, were focused on National Parks. Yellowstone alone saw more infrastructure construction because of the New Deal than in the entire history of the park up to that time. It has been debated that the bright colors and humorous nature of this and the other Hysterical Maps are intended to inspire good spirits against the backdrop of national social and economic depression – this might also be said of the entire genre of cartoon pictorial maps which were experiencing a golden age at that time. This map was part of a series of maps drawn by Jolly Elmer Lindgren. This series – Hysterical Maps – are differentiated by their humorous style and intention versus the more common Historical Maps. An original Hysterical Map of Yellowstone hangs in the Buffalo River library and has been archivally scanned and enhanced. We offer this Museum Quality Giclée Reproduction Print.
