[Mexican Revolution]

State of Mexico and Surrounding Country [caption title]

Chicago: Rand McNally, 1913. Color printed map, approximately 16 x 22 inches. Previous folded, lacking card wrappers (with some residue on otherwise blank verso). Two contemporary ink stamps. Light toning. About very good. Item #2903

An odd and scarce map that details American understanding of the situation in Mexico during the Revolution of the 1910s. Starting with a garden-variety Rand-McNally map of the country, an entrepreneurial employee has made extensive use of red overprinting to show the "chief centers of the rebellion and names of leaders," the "principal garrisons of Federal-Mexican troops in the North," major American forts along the border, and the locations of U.S. consular offices across Mexico. The map was produced in 1913, before any American involvement in the conflict following the Tampico Affair and the subsequent occupation of Veracruz in 1914. Still, the overall impression is that the United States possessed the overwhelming force to play a major role in the Revolution, when it was in fact largely an internal affair. The map was issued as a promotional by the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, who no doubt wanted to demonstrate the dangers of international travel at that point in time and the desirability of their products, and bears the small ink stamps of a Portland, Oregon, sales agent.

Price: $450.00