Children Round the World – A Picture Costume Map

Stereotyping kids across the world!

At first glance, this pictorial map of the world offers a fun and whimsical overview of children around the globe. Small vignettes identify unique cultural elements, distinctive clothing styles, and many iconic characters from juvenile literature. Santa can even be seen in Greenland! However, a closer examination reveals that many of the illustrations represent popular contemporary racial stereotypes. Yellow-skinned and slant-eyed Asians, ‘simple’ Africans with exaggerated physical features, and jet-black Uncle Remus in the American South all serve to highlight the ‘otherness’ of different races.

The border of the image contains the names of ‘books and book people that have made the wide world better known to the children of America.’ Beloved classics like Treasure Island and Moby Dick are accompanied by prejudicial pieces like Little Black Sambo and Tarzan – an assortment that well reflects the popular sentiments on racial hierarchy in the 20th century.

The map was illustrated by Francis Haase (signed, lower right) and published in New York in 1939 by the R.R. Bowker Company. The timing of the publication may have been deliberate. The odd political borders show an irregular (and empty) space in southeast Germany – approximately the location of the (formerly independent) Czechoslovakia. It’s possible the map was made shortly after the public announcement of the Munich Agreement, reflecting a brief window of global optimism for peace. Or, perhaps more somberly, the image aims to highlight the most overlooked victims of the impending conflict.