JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
There have been many unusual maps registered on this blog over seven years (see Maps/Presentation of Imagination and Ideas here as well as Maps/History of Cartography, here) not the least of which are several long posts on maps of imaginary places. (I should also say that perhaps my selection for the most beautiful map of all time is the Bellman’s Map [of nothing] from Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark.)
- See also: A Map of the Kingdom of Corsets, here.
The maps below are a presentation of Commonality and Hope in Transport Through a 1939 Kitchen, and appear in Electric Kitchens, and How to Plan Them, published by the Modern Kitchen Bureau (of course), of 420 Lex, NYC. It is much more difficult to find/stumble upon unusual maps such as these compared with displaying the first map to depict California as an island or some such notion, so I think it is slightly significant that when these unexpected pearls present themselves that they should be shared, or at least indexed.
Electric Kitchens and the Kitchen Bureau were no doubt funded by Con Edison or a manufacturer of electric kitchen appliances, because what we see in this pamphlet is the promise of saved time and efficiency and cleanliness by using electric stoves and dishwashers and refrigerators and mixers and blenders and ovens and ventilating fans and toasters and even clocks.
And so, movement in a pre-mostly-electric kitchen looks complex:
Whereas the promise of the new ultra-electric kitchen looks incredibly streamlined, with a message to the reader that you won’t spend any time in the kitchen at all:
When these folks say “minimum” they really mean it–really, it is more like minimum being the maximum.
And since we’re on the min/max bit right now I would be remiss if I didn’t include a view of the modern kitchen, offered in modern color:
