Treasures of the Area Studies Collections: Reconsidering Primary Sources and Collections

Pictorial Map of WWI

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

This multilingual map of the Great War plays on a trope that was popular in mapmaking during the Age of Imperialism – the depiction of countries as representative animals or anthropomorphized stereotypes. Here, the various actors of WWI are depicted as soldiers in uniform, with the exception of Germany as a giant bulldog in military regalia. The map is approximately dated to the earliest days of the war in 1914, as evidenced in part by America’s passive observation of hostilities. These caricature maps are popular collectors’ items not only for their visual appeal, but also for the ways in which they reveal aspects of cultural life and popular opinion in the period of Western imperial expansion.

Public

https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/15259151