King Cotton Hotel Greensboro North Carolina

Folding map advertising the King Cotton Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Greensboro, North Carolina experienced a significant surge in industrial growth and population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though the Depression had slowed the rate by the time this map was published, promotional text within still refers to the city as “The Hartford of the South” due to it’s commercial success, especially in textile manufacturing.

The King Cotton Hotel, constructed in 1926, opened to capture a portion of the new wealth flowing into the city, and issued this promotional road map of the southeastern United States in 1931. Major highways are highlighted in red, with a large arrow pointing to Greensboro, home of the hotel.

The verso features text and photographs praising the hospitality and amenities, and uses powerful imagery of black cotton pickers, presumably to curry an aura of ‘authenticity’ in the post-Civil War South.