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STANDARD OIL COMPANY/ GENERAL DRAFTING CO. [Convent Station, NJ: 1957] Oil In America A pictorial story of the Petroleum Industry in the United States. 24 ½ x 34 inches. Folding map, color-printed both sides of sheet; excellent condition. Scarce, promotional map made for the Standard Oil Company pictorially extolling the myriad of petroleum-derived products in all facets of American life and prosperity. “For each state, there is at least one illustration - seven for California! - of the benefits from petroleum products, from traditional oil and gasoline to pesticides, pharmaceuticals, rubber, coatings and a compound that ‘controls lice, ticks and flies on sheep’” (Cornell Digital Library). As such, the map is testimony to the astounding ingenuity of American product creation in affording ready convenience and comfort. The map is also a revealing artifact of the American mindset of the 1950s. In its unquestioning embrace of all things oil related, the map conveys the innocence of a period that has yet to perceive the downsides of some of the products it depicts. Many of the petroleum-derived products and uses illustrated on the map are unsurprisingly in the form of plastic. Hornsby notes that “the map’s spare aesthetic, common on may ‘gas maps’ of the time, reflects the shift from art deco to modernism in American art and architecture” (p. 252). The three inset maps along the top illustrate, respectively, the sites of production of Standard Oil and its affiliates, of its pipelines, and of its refineries. On the verso, are short essays describing the role of oil in various sectors of American life. Hornsby, S. J. Picturing America the golden age of pictorial maps, pp. 244, 252-53, pl 150.
Cornell Digital Library: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293983
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