The Land of Make Believe

A 1992 reprint of one of the most iconic cultural maps ever produced in the United States.

This map was originally drawn and published in 1930 by Jaro Hess of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Titling the image as “The Land of Make Believe,” Hess condensed a pantheon of characters and locations from pop culture, fairy tales, parables, and classical literature into one cartographic image.

This map is likely the only place, outside of one’s imagination, where Rip Van Winkle walks in the same forest as Red Riding Hood as the Emerald City of Oz rises in the background. There are over thirty individual references within the imaging, ranging from popular icons to items of obscurity, which compose a fantastic visual mythology.

[Taken from the Jaro Hess Website]

“The Land of Make Believe is the only one of Hess’s works to achieve fame outside of Grand Rapids. The map was created in 1930 and was exhibited in the children’s section of Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress World Exhibition.[I] There are disputes about who originally widely published the map, but Hess certainly distributed and sold copies and the map himself, and, regardless, the Land of Make Believe found its way into classrooms and children’s bedrooms across America.[ii] “

Source.