-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Pictorial Wall Maps of China and Asia
Date:   Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:34:15 -0400
From:   Bob Kibbee <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[log in to unmask]>




All,

Last year we acquired by a fortuitous accident a wall map of China. It's
quite a pictorial extravaganza.

A copy shows up on the Old Maps website, if you'd like to see it:
http://www.oldmapgallery.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=51&products_id=2028
<http://www.oldmapgallery.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=51&products_id=2028>

Their copy is in significantly better shape than ours.

    Author/Creator:    Diakoff, John A.


        Title:
        Map of China / compiled by John A. Diakoff ; drawn by G.



        Primakoff ; [and] engraved by P. Sergeeff.

        Published:         Harbin :
        Northern Trading Co. & V.F. Yao-hsiun, 193-?

        Description:       Map



        Scale 1:3,200,000.



        1 pictorial map : col. ; 137 x 191 cm.



        Notes:
        Submaps: January isotherms.--July isotherms.



        Photographs of scenes in decorative border.



        "Approved by: Department of Education of the Three Eastern



        Provinces, Institute of Oriental and Commercial Sciences



        and Pedagogical Institute, Harbin. Recommended for use



        in Middle and High Schools."



        In English and Chinese.


        Map Format:        Scale
        1:3,200,000.




We already had in the collection a map of Asia by the same cartographer:

    Author/Creator:    Diakoff, John A.
    Title:             Map of Asia / compiled and drawn by John A. Diakoff.
    Published:         Shanghai : Educational Publishing Co., [ca. 1936]
    Description:       Scale [1:8,851,392] 1 cm. = 55 miles.
                       1 map : col. ; 100 x 128 cm.
    Notes:             Relief shown pictorially.
                       Includes insets: Rainfall, forest type,
    ethnographic map,
                          culture map.
                       Pictorial map.
                       Vignettes in margins.
    Map Format:        Scale [1:8,851,392] 1 cm. = 55 miles.

I'm wondering if any one knows anything about the maps, their creator,
or the publishing houses. According to the title block they were
produced for educational purposes. But for what market? And why was
someone in Russian Manchuria in the 1930s producing maps of China with
English titles and labels?

Bob

Bob Kibbee
Map & GIS Librarian
Map and Geospatial Information Collection
B17 Olin Library, Cornell University
Ithaca,  New York    14853-5301
voice 607-255-9566 / fax 607-255-3609