Endless Caverns New Market, VA

“Considered the most beautiful of the Shenandoah Valley Caverns.” – Text front covers.

The Endless Caverns, near New Market, VA, opened to the public as a privately-owned ‘show cave’ in 1920. This promotional brochure, filled with descriptive text, photographs, and more, was issued to encourage tourism during the first decade or so of operation. Behind striking covers, a wealth of information is presented on local history, the structure of the cave, nearby attractions, etc. The visual highlight is a surreal ‘Resort Map of the Eastern United States’, credited to Hans O. Hofmann and the Nomad Publishing Company, Inc.

The piece is undated and the contents are surprisingly incongruous. The bold claim that ‘electricity is named, but not known’ is accompanied by room descriptions that were first authored in 1880, giving the impression of a 19th-century promotional. The panoramic photograph certainly shows buildings that could be from that era! But the automobiles are distinctly from the 1920s, while the road map, copyrighted by H.D. Grant, shows Federal Highways (first introduced in 1926). Lighting renovations from 1927 are also mentioned. A final wrinkle – the war tax mentioned on the first page is marked out, though these had been largely phased out by the early 1920s.