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Description

Signed example of a rare Ernest Dudley Chase map of the Stamps of America.

Ernest Dudley Chase's lively map depicts many of the most famous and collectable American stamps.

The map also includes annotations noting major events in the progress of American postal delivery.

Rumsey notes:

Pictorial map of the United States, showing U.S. postage stamps, most of which are placed on or near the corresponding locales featured on the stamp. With small drawings of landmarks and descriptive notes. Shows state lines, and generally only one or two major cities per state. Thematic arrangements of other stamps surround the map, including a grouping of past presidents, stamps honoring the armed forces and stamps showing 1943-4 flags. Includes historical notes. In the top center of the map is an inset illustration of a mail carrier at work with the U.S. Post Office motto and seal. A red-highlighted compass rose, lower left.

Ernest Dudley Chase was one of the most prolific and renowned pictorial map artists of the 20th century, producing about 50 maps published from the 1930s to the 1960s. Chase's maps cover a wide assortment of locations and topics. The biographical pamphlet A Meticulous Maker of Maps describes Chase's "passion for perfection," executing the detailed pictures under a magnifying glass "dot by dot, with tiny pens."

Ernest Dudley Chase was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and began his career as a graphic artist. He established his own greeting card company, which he sold to Rust Craft Publishers in 1920. He authored The Romance of Greeting Cards, the first complete history of the medium, published in 1926, with a revised edition in 1956.

Chase began drawing maps at age 49, which he self-published from his home in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Chase donated many examples of his maps to the Harvard University Map Collection, Pusey Library, which featured them in the exhibition "The Pictorial Maps of Ernest Dudley Chase" from February to April 2003. According to the curators of the exhibit, Chase "designed pictorial maps ranging in scale from his own hometown to global themes of navigation, exploration, communication, and world peace. He could be alternately whimsical, didactic, and subtly allusive--often on the same map." In 2009, the State Library of Massachusetts presented the exhibition "Ernest Dudley Chase: A Worldview in Maps," showcasing his wide variety of works.

Condition Description
Signed by Ernest Dudley Chase at the bottom.
Reference
“Ernest Dudley Chase.” National Cyclopedia of American Biography. James T. White & Co., after 1966. “Ernest Dudley Chase: A Worldview in Maps: Exhibit now on view at the State Library.” 22 May 2009. State Library of Massachusetts Blog. http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/05/ernest-dudley