- Title: Invasion and Total War Victory Maps with Decorations, Illustrations and Military and Naval Insignia
- Author: Ernest Dudley Chase
- Date: 1943
- Condition: Good - A colorful example, issued folding, with an archivally repaired 3 1/2" fold separation at the lower left and several short splits at fold intersections.
- Inches: 35 3/8 x 14 15/16 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 89.85 x 37.94 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308778
Mapping Victory in a World at War
An elaborate fusion of wartime cartography and patriotic illustration, Ernest Dudley Chase’s Total War Battle Map presents the global conflict in a sweeping composition centered on Asia and the Pacific. Pale yellow landmasses and blue oceans contrast with the ominous black shading of Germany, Italy, and Japan, visually distinguishing the principal Axis powers. Dense geographical detail identifies cities, railroads, naval bases, and colonial possessions, while routes and distances between distant ports emphasize the immense logistical reach of a war fought across continents and oceans.
The seas become a stage for displays of military strength, populated by carefully rendered warships, submarines, and aircraft. Larger vignettes punctuate the decorative border, including “A Yank Tank,” a “Flying Fortress,” coast artillery, a mobile field gun, and an antiaircraft gun crew. An oversized compass rose and a striking geometric frame lend the map the graphic energy characteristic of Chase’s pictorial work. Its combination of practical information and martial imagery serves both to explain the geographical scope of the conflict and to project confidence in an Allied victory, underscored by the declaration beneath the title: “Certain Victory Will be Ours!”
The reverse extends this informative and patriotic program with Chase’s “Victory War Map,” covering Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia within a border of military and naval ranks and insignia. Two supplementary maps detail the English Channel and Japan with the surrounding western Pacific—not the region around Italy. Folding cover panels advertise “Invasion and Total War Victory Maps,” while a separate presentation panel bears the compliments of Rust Craft Publishers of Boston. Together, the two sides combine a richly illustrated guide to the theaters of war with a vivid expression of American wartime resolve.
Background on Creator
Ernest Dudley Chase (1878-1966) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He received his first artistic training from his father, who was a wallpaper designer. He attended the Lowell Textile School and the Vesper George Art School, then worked for printing companies from 1900-1908, beginning with the Butterfield Printing Company in 1900. Chase established his own greeting card company called Des Arts Publishers, which he later sold to Rust Craft Publishers in 1920. He authored "The Romance of Greeting Cards," published in 1926, which was the first complete history of the greeting card medium. Chase operated from his studio in Winchester, Massachusetts, where he became famous for his elaborately illustrated pictorial maps. He was an avid traveler, taking numerous trips throughout the United States and abroad between 1922 and 1937.
Chase began drawing maps at age 49, self-publishing them from his home in Winchester, principally during the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of the most prolific pictorial map artists of the 20th century, producing approximately 50 maps that covered a wide assortment of places and topics. His maps were characterized by dense vignette images of important locations, and he was known for his meticulous attention to detail, stippling his images "dot-by-dot, with tiny pens" under a magnifying glass in pursuit of what was described as a "passion for perfection." During his career, he also worked for Rust Craft Publishers, which printed greeting cards at its plant in Dedham. Chase died in 1966 at the age of 88.