THY KINGDOM COME – THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH

Scarce and massive map outlining the potential converts of American missionaries during the mid-1920s.

This impressive wall map practically beckons the faithful to travel the globe to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tables of statistics show that millions of the Earth’s inhabitants remained ignorant of the Christian faith or practiced alternative religions. Huge areas of land, much of which was under the authority of a Western colonial power(especially in Africa), was available for conversion. An interesting regional breakdown in the lower right estimates a population of 1.7 billion spread across nearly 60 million square miles.

Major settlements are labeled, with particular emphasis given to the worldwide offices of the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada. Incorporated in 1911 as an offshoot of the Young People’s Missionary Movement, the organization emphasized evangelical Protestant efforts by hosting conferences, publishing literature (including leaflets, maps, and posters), and financing missionary education.

The novel method (for the time) in which the map is presented uses a homolosine projection designed in 1923 (the year prior to publication) J. Paul Goode of the University of Chicago. According to text in the lower center, “a square inch anywhere on the map represents the same number of square miles of the earth’s surface as any other square inch on the map. This projection reduces the distortion of the shape of land bodies to the minimum possible on a world map.”

Published in New York by the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada in 1924. Scarce, with only one entry in OCLC.

Sources: OCLC:1158013944; University of Pennsylvania; New York University;