- Title: A Hysterical Map of Yellowstone Park with Apologies to the Park - Smileage Guaranteed
- Author: Hjalmer (Jolly) & Oscar (O.S.) Lindgren
- Date: 1948
- Condition: Very Good - A colorful example, issued folding, with minor wear along one fold; the accompanying envelope has a small chip at the upper right corner.
- Inches: 15 5/8 x 15 3/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 39.68 x 40.00 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308779
“Hatched & scratched” by Jolly Lindgren, this exuberant pictorial map transforms Yellowstone National Park into a landscape of visual puns, comic characters, and irreverent commentary. Hot springs appear as coils radiating sizzling heat, Frying Pan Spring becomes a skillet, Congress Pool takes the form of a billiard table, and a “holdup” bear brandishes a pistol. Old Faithful sings “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles,” while a jail cell crowns Folsom Peak. Verbal jokes enliven the geography, including “Are Ya Hurt?” beneath Gibbon Falls and “Hell for Certain” below Brimstone Basin. This later edition differs from the 1936 original principally in its slightly smaller format and the addition of a mileage table at the lower left. It retains an original Lindgren mailing envelope decorated with a sign proclaiming, “Here’s Another Hysterical Map.”
The Lindgren Brothers
Based in Spokane, Washington, brothers Hjalmer “Jolly” Lindgren and Oscar “O.S.” Lindgren established their business in 1928, with Jolly providing the artwork and Oscar managing administration and production. Their first map, issued in 1932, was “Hysterical Map of the Spokane Country Slightly Cockeyed,” conceived as hysterical rather than historical. Its success encouraged further maps in 1933, including Puget Sound, Rainier National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. Growing national park visitation during the Depression provided a receptive audience for these cheerful souvenirs, which combined recognizable geography with the pleasures of a cartoon.
Beginning with Yellowstone, Jolly developed the distinctive visual vocabulary that became the hallmark of his national park maps: a bold blue border incorporating the title, yellow land, red roads, black lettering, and touches of green and blue. Ted Turner joined the firm as sales director in 1930, gradually assuming a larger role before becoming a partner in 1949, when the business was renamed Lindgren-Turner. As the map trade declined after World War II, the company successfully expanded into souvenir decals. Following Jolly’s death in 1952, Oscar and Turner broadened the range further with postcards marketed as “King Size Mapcards.”