A Map of Chicago for the Year 1933

Chicago: Past and Present

This historically significant pictorial map of Chicago was designed by the artist Ralph Fletcher Seymour and copyrighted in 1932 by the T.N.T. Company. It was issued as a souvenir to commemorate the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, a World’s Fair held to celebrate Chicago’s 300th anniversary and the promise of a future enhanced by technology.

Executed in a warm, sepia-toned aesthetic that evokes the elegance of the Arts and Crafts movement, the map offers a sprawling bird’s-eye view of the Windy City during a transformative era. Seymour’s intricate linework captures the dense “Loop” skyline, where early skyscrapers stand as monuments to American industry, while the newly reclaimed parklands of the lakefront provide a colorful contrast. Straightforward labels showcase the old and new, from the site of Old Fort Dearborn to the specially designed hydroplane ramp in the harbor.

The composition is framed by a decorative border featuring vignettes of Chicago’s historical milestones, tracing the city’s meteoric rise from a frontier outpost to a global metropolis. The Century of Progress fairgrounds are depicted along the lower (eastern) edge, with nearly twenty buildings keyed in the bottom margin. Seymour utilizes a whimsical yet sophisticated cartographic style, with an elaborate compass rose, woodcut-style illustrations, and an elaborate title cartouche that reflects the ‘progress’ of indigenous to industry.