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Wonderful Depression-Era Map of York County Created by WPA Artist Klir A. Beck.
Scarce vintage pictorial map of York County, Maine, prepared for the 300th Anniversary of the County by the York County Tercentenary Commission and Maine-based artist Klir Beck.
The map covers all of York County and filled with vignettes illustrating important aspects of the local townships. Tuna fishing and yachting off Kennebunk Port are illustrated. Various landmarks and scenes of wilderness are spread throughout the map.
Klir Beck was an important Maine artist famous for his idiosyncratic summer house called "The Gnomes". The Portland Public Library says this of Beck:
Maine artist Klir Beck of Vienna created a series of Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) posters called "Gee, Mister," depicting sportsmen abusing natural resources. A Pittsburgh native, Beck moved to Vienna with his wife Blanche in 1926. They maintained a whitetail deer sanctuary on their land and he began work as an architect. After the Great Depression he worked as an architect and artist for the state and produced national art for the W.P.A. Collectors' reprints of Beck's posters are still available from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
