Slide Sets

Pictures and maps are not separate beings. Maps utilize pictures and pictures utilize maps to help tell stories that cannot be told by either medium alone. In one famous example, seventeenth century Dutch artists used maps as representations of the outside world and Dutch dominance in it, even when depicting a quiet interior scene. In images such as Vermeer’s “Soldier and Young Girl Smiling,” a map of the newly unified and independent Netherlands hangs on the wall. These juxtapositions speak to deeper meanings in the connections between map, painting, and the place depicted (Alpers, 1987). Paintings and maps of wetlands and newly reclaimed farmland, for instance, depicted not only a place, but also the Dutch triumph over the sea (Schama, 1987). These ideas are also often promoted by text on the map. For instance, a map of the breaking of a Spanish siege of a Dutch town is accompanied by an informative narrative from a very Dutch point of view.

Maps promote particular views of space. Siam (now Thailand) never had definite borders until Western influenced maps that showed the borders appeared (Anderson, 1991 and Thongchai, 1994). Brian Harley argues that early maps of the Americas “helped invent America in the European consciousness.” These maps imposed European names on the landscape and gave little indication of the Native American populations living there, making the landscape seem less exotic to potential colonists (Harley, 1992). As Matthew Edney (1993) states “All maps — whatever their claims to the contrary — serve a larger purpose; mapmaking is not a neutral activity divorced from the power relations of human society.”

This collection comprises a group of images from a very different period and place from Golden Age Netherlands and colonial America. The focus here is the image of twentieth century Iowa presented by the state’s official state highway maps. Rather than focusing on the main map of Iowa, the set concerns changes in the content of the vignettes, illustrations, and text found on the flip side of the main map. The content varies over the years. While the maps themselves were completed by a variety of contractors, they were published by the Iowa State Highway Commission. On the flip-side of their official state maps the Iowa state government, or at least the highway commission, tried to shape the image of Iowa held by map readers. Like the landscape paintings and maps of the Netherlands, official state highway maps serve as metaphors for the state itself. As such they helped create the popular image of the state both within and outside of its borders.

The American road map originated in the late nineteenth century with maps of local areas produced for cyclists. The first small-scale road maps were produced by private associations promoting such routes as the Dixie and Lincoln Highways and by automobile associations (Akerman, 1993). It was only after the passage of the Federal Road Aid Act in 1916 that state governments appear to have become interested in publishing their own maps for public consumption. The first official highway maps of rural states like Iowa charted the paving of the state’s highways. Promotion of the state became more important between 1933 and the 1950s. A focus on road improvement returned in the 1960s with the completion of the interstate highway system. In general, official state highway maps concentrate on road building during periods of road improvement and on general promotion during more static periods.

Images on maps of Iowa are particularly interesting because Iowa is the quintessential agricultural state. Americans have conflicting views of farming. It is at once romantic, noble, productive, and backwards. Viewing these maps and the associated images allows us to gain a picture of how a group of state officials viewed its agricultural heritage at particular times. Was the agricultural nature of the state hidden? Was it celebrated? What types of farms were depicted? Were the farming images modern or romantic? Did the images change over time? Viewing these images gives us a rare glimpse into what the ideal Midwestern landscape was, or at least the landscape that the department thought would sell the state.

The images seen on official state highway maps of Iowa show recurring themes. Perhaps most prominently, they serve the interest of the highway department itself, by promoting road improvements, the importance of roads in the life and economy of Iowa, amenities such as rest areas, and information such as the rules of the road. Each map also serves as a plea for the further highway funding. A related theme is a focus on state-run recreational areas. Further themes include images of agriculture, industry, and history. Specific images of agriculture are prominent, often promoting a modern, yet romantic vision. Neat farms with the latest technology are common, as are images of roads tying farms to urban scenes and factories. Urban images are somewhat less prominent, particularly in early years, but pains are made on most maps to depict Iowa as more than just a rural state. A focus is placed on a Iowa as a good place to live — a perfect combination of traditional American values and modern American amenities. Historical images are often also seen, specifically images of pioneers and native Americans. The general vision of Iowa over the period is that of a modern center of agricultural might, blessed with rich soils, built by intrepid pioneers, full of industrial and recreational opportunities, and above all, good roads.

Before 1933, available official maps of Iowa concentrated on highway improvement. This is not surprising, considering that particularly during the 1910s and the 1920s good roads were a primary focus of the country in general and farm states in particular. Improved roads were considered essential to the improvement of rural lives, both in terms of bringing out harvested crops and bringing in American culture and products. Significantly, the Iowa Highway Commission is located in Ames, home of the state’s agricultural university, rather than in the capital Des Moines. In Iowa, road improvement was particularly difficult because the rich dark soil of Iowa turned into especially deep and sticky mud when wet. In 1931, an approximately 250 square mile area in the northwest quadrant of the state still had no paved roads, but it had been completed enough for the 1931 state map to shout “Iowa Has Stepped Out of the Mud!” The map also gives a list of data: 19,700 miles of pavement and gravel; $200,000,000 worth of roads. A lower caption calls out to travelers: “You can plan a trip into and across Iowa with every Assurance of Keeping your Schedule by the Hour.” Finally, it also reflects a tendency of early Iowa maps to include flowery odes to the state. The left and center boxes discuss the state’s military and settlement history. The right box describes the state today, discussing the wonders of each season. Visitors are urged, for instance, to “breathe the exhilarating atmosphere of an Iowa fall and the approach of winter.”

Beginning in 1933, the state of Iowa began to put much more money into its state highway maps. Additional colors appeared, and the back of the maps were filled with not only text, but also images. The images and text chosen reflect the general themes of history, good roads, and modern agriculture. On the cover of the 1934 map, a stereotypical native American is the central icon, standing with a spear and looking out across the landscape. Above this, 1934 is flanked by wings suggesting speed and modernity. On either side of this, there are landscapes. The left image depicts a hilly Iowa scene, perhaps near the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. A paved highway winds its way through forests and orchards. Underneath a caption reads: “Visit Iowa, Scenic Beauty-Paving Everywhere.” The right image shows a flatter, agricultural landscape, with a well maintained road, and a neat and prosperous looking farm. The underlying caption is titled “Iowa, the Bread Basket of America,” and contains the statement, repeated on many later maps, that “One-tenth of all the food products in the United States comes from the State of Iowa.” Interestingly, the farming image here is separated from the “beautiful Iowa” image. The focus here is on agricultural productivity, not romanticism. Also, interestingly, there is no urban image nor even a mention of urban Iowa.

The back of the 1934 official state map continues the themes that appear in the cover in more depth. A number of photographs and drawings surround an outline map of Iowa filled with prose. Surrounding statements focus on recreation and history. The photographs themselves highlight the state’s beauty and recreational opportunities, including six photos of state parks. Other images highlight modern road and state institutions. Interestingly, neither farming nor commerce is mentioned at all. The drawings include two of hunting and fishing, an urban landscape and historical images of a frontier fort, a log cabin, an early farmer breaking the soil, and the old state capitol. What is particularly interesting, however, is the text. The text in the outline map depicts Iowa as a place to come for solace and pleasure. It states that while Iowa has had many tangible accomplishments, the real beauty of the state is in its transformative pleasantness. It touts “intangible” beauty that “only the poets can suitably enumerate and appraise” and “inspires the meadowlark to purer floating.” The traveler is urged to “go with your soul awake.” This idea, that there is something intangible about Iowa that makes for calmer, more peaceful lives, is a romantic image that continues on future maps. A further theme here is that Iowa is the typical American state. The shape of the state is set up as a metaphor for America as a whole: “Iowa in outline ... parallels the geographic pattern of the nation--the Mississippi River her Atlantic and the Missouri her Pacific coast, and even her Key West looks out over broad waters at Keokuk.” Iowa is depicted as a place where North, South, East, and West come together into a state that can be seen as representing the entire country.

The left side panel provides more factual detail about Iowa’s opportunities and beauty. The right side panel is more interesting, depicting the history of the state as the march of manifest density focused on the plowing of fields and the building of roads. This story is keyed to a quote from the gospel of Luke: “Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.”

The vision of Iowa promoted here is one of quiet beauty, faith, and industriousness. Iowa agriculture and soil is productive, and its farmers and road builders have fulfilled their biblical task. Its landscape appears to make inhabitants and visitors more moral, and it is stereotypically American.

As Iowa embarked upon the postwar years of prosperity, the state published maps whose flip-sides were filled with colorful promotions of the state. These maps continued to promote the vision of Iowa seen in the 1930s with more of an emphasis on the connections between urban and rural and agricultural mechanization. Later, they turn into almost pure agricultural promotions. The title of the 1947 map states “Of all that is good Iowa affords the best.” At the center, a mural from the state capitol invokes the manifest density of the pioneers, a covered wagon being led into the state by angels. The drawings surrounding this painting shows a well-maintained road leading from a rural area to a city. Surrounding this are photos that mostly depict agricultural themes, in particular agricultural mechanization, including photos of mechanical corn harvesting and hay making. Only one building is depicted, the Home Economics Building at land grant Iowa State University. Taken together, the photos, paintings, and drawings create an impression of a quickly modernizing agricultural state, pushed forward by a divine pioneer spirit.

As on the 1934 map, however, the highlight of this map is the text around it. “We call it Iowa” tells the story of a Martian who lands on planet Earth and searches for the best it has to offer. He is directed first to the United States and there beholds “a land and a people filled with imperfections, but, nevertheless, enjoying the greatest advances yet make upon this planet toward a comfortable and pleasurable existence.” Our Martian then wonders where to find the best of this nation. He finds large cities confusing. “In our great cities he will find the triumphant steel and masonry achievements of our builders within a stone's throw of slum districts where human beings must live without the hope of quiet and comfort and cleanliness.” Many rural areas reveal living conditions that “are primitive and a meager and stunted existence is all that has been achieved.” The Martian worries that there is nowhere on Earth where he can view “a comprehensive segment of the best that Planet Earth, through the ages, has succeeded in evolving.”

There is, of course such a place. It is Iowa. Why? “Nature has favored it with a temperate climate, ample rainfall and productive soil; natural resources that attract thoughtful, industrious people who expect to work for a living and who have reason for confidence that their work will be rewarded.” The fertile and beautiful landscape of Iowa again makes Iowans moral.

The 1951 Iowa map was the highlight of a beautiful set of maps, ending in 1951, which totally ignored most issues other than the promotion of Iowa through its agriculture. The 1949 map was titled “The Abundant Heart of the Nation.” It included a poem that appeared on many maps entitled “In This State Called Iowa” which stated that in creating Iowa God was “building a garden.” The backs of the 1950 and 1951 maps contained almost no writing at all, but were devoted entirely to brightly colored agricultural scenes. The 1950 map declared Iowa “The Nation’s Magic Garden” and featured fall landscapes, a picture of the state fair, a covered bridge, and contour farming, all surrounded, in a cartouche like design, by drawings of corn, pigs, farms, and cattle. The overall image is of an agricultural power, both modern and at the same time, romantic. The 1951 map, seen here, continues this trend. Its title reads “Iowa: Empress of Agriculture.” Top center is a golden sun with a corn kernel centered upon it. Lower down are photos of a typical Iowa farm home, a farm scene, a covered bridge, mechanical threshing, the state capital, and the Iowa State College Campanile. Again, these photos are surrounded by animal icons. Here again the state highway department paid homage to Iowa’s agricultural legacy, shouting out to the world pride in the state’s productivity and modern farms.

Following the intensely illustrated maps of the late forties and early fifties, the backs of Iowa Highway maps became much more utilitarian. Inset maps showing details of individual cities took up much of the space previously devoted to drawings and text. Illustrations lessened and eventually almost disappeared entirely. Maps and designs changed little year to year. From 1964 until 1975 the backs of Iowa official state maps charted the completion of the interstate system. Covers showed highway construction or, on the 1969 map, newly built rest areas. There is little text, and what there is tends to be factual and to the point. A description of the cover picture describes “all-modern rest room facilities set in spacious, landscaped surroundings.” The map itself depicts Iowa’s three major interstates, along with the interchanges and towns along them. In between there is empty space that is utilized to place inset maps. Some of the maps (but not the 1969 one) also contain a simple interstate map of the United States. This map, which emphasizes driving through Iowa rather than exploring the countryside is very different from the 1934 map, which claimed the whole state as a destination and promoted the Iowa landscape as a place to rejuvenate the soul. In constrast, the 1969 map divides the world into interesting and uninteresting spots solely on the basis of whether these places were near an interstate. It also focuses entirely on highways, with very little discussion of farms or urban places other than short factual statements such as “(t)he value of Iowa’s agricultural output exceeds $3½ million annually.”

In 1976, the celebration of the Bicentennial of the United States prompted the highway commission to move away from its emphasis of its road constructions on its maps and the state and as been slowly adding tourist information every since. Recently, there has been a definite attempt to fill in the blank spaces in Iowa again. Maps have gone to a larger format, leaving more room for information on the back. This information has an annual theme. In 1998, the theme was Iowa’s historic sites. In 2001, environmental stewardship was the theme, with a focus on how the Department of Transportation is taking steps to minimize environmental damage.

Denis Wood concludes after analyzing an official state map of North Carolina, official state highway maps are primarily about highways (Wood, 1992). True, on the main map, it is the highways that are most highlighted, to the detriment of any other symbol. Still, an official state highway map is one of the few opportunities a state has to influence how it is seen in the world. As Iowa alternated between major periods of road improvement and building and periods in which state promotion was paramount, both the importance of its roads to the state and varying images through the state promoted itself are revealed (seen through the lens of the highway commission) on its highway maps.

1. Back, Iowa Primary Road Map (Ames: Iowa Highway Commission, 1931). Newberry Library, Rand McNally Collection, RMcN AE041.22.
2. Cover, Iowa Highway Map (Ames: Iowa State Highway Commission, 1934). Newberry Library, Rand McNally Collection, RMcN AE041.30.
3. Lower Portion of Back, Iowa Highway Map (Ames: Iowa State Highway Commission, 1934). Newberry Library, Rand McNally Collection, RMcN AE041.30.
4. Back, Iowa Highway Map (Ames: Iowa State Highway Commission, 1947). University of Chicago Map Library, G4151 .P2 1947 .I6
5. Back, Iowa Highway Map (Ames: Iowa State Highway Commission, 1951). University of Chicago Map Library, G4151 .P2 1951 .I6.
6. Back, Iowa Highway Map (Ames: Iowa State Highway Commission, 1969). Personal Collection.

Akerman, James R. “Blazing a Well-worn Path: Cartographic Commercialism, Highway Promotion, and Automobile Tourism in the United States, ca. 1880-1930.” In Introducing Cultural and Social Cartography, ed. Robert A. Rundstrom. Cartographica Monograph 44. Cartographica 30(1)1993: 10-20.

Alpers, Svetlana. “The Mapping Impulse in Dutch Art.” In Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities, 2nd edition. New York: Verso, 1991.

Harley, J. Brian. “Rereading the maps of the Columbian encounter.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82(3) 1992: 522-542.

Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches. New York: Vintage, 1997.

Thongchai Winichakul. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.