Maps for Map Lovers

One of our readers—the one who sends map links—sent us a New York Times story from last fall about vintage maps, "When Maps Reflected Romance of the Road". It has some rather nice illustrations, images of road maps from the first half of the twentieth century.

We are particularly pleased that this came up, as we have had a copy of the "Official 1940 Road Map of New Mexico" on our desk for a couple of years. Now is its moment to shine. Click for larger images:

A lot of now-major highways were still gravel (or dirt) in 1940... The map will be in the vertical file, if you want to take a look at it. Ask at the reference desk.