In these Covid-ridden times, you may have wished for an Adirondack weekend, which depending on the day’s travel moratorium may or may not have come true. While it is beyond the SLU Libraries magic to make wishes come true, we have acquired a number of interesting Adirondack maps this autumn. Among them is a set “Map of Adirondack Lands” from the New York State Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission dated 1896 that provides detailed information on the status of the lands in all of the Adirondack Park (in four maps). It is a simply beautiful object. We have also acquired four travel maps:
- “The Adirondacks: Our Great National Playground” published by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, early twentieth century. It contains not only information on the railways operation to Adirondack destinations, but includes an extensive list of “Boys and Girls Summer Camps.”
- “The Adirondack Mountains and How to Reach Them” published by the New York Central Lines, 1912. This guide contains descriptions of many regions within the Adirondack Park, maps of rail lines, and of canoe carries.
- “Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway” published by Whiteface Mountain Highway Commission, mid-twentieth century. Complete with a map to the central Adirondack and many period photographs of people and the mountain.
- “The Central Adirondacks” published by the Hollywood Hills Corporation of Utica New York, early twentieth century. This is a visually compelling document, complete with maps and an extensive listing of hotels from across the park.
These four maps serve as records of the Adirondack tourism trade, and the image of the Adirondacks in the popular consciousness in the early twentieth century. All of these maps are now part of our Adirondack Collection (MSS 32).
We also recently acquired In the Land of the Loon by F. Kimball Scribner and Earl W. Mayo, (Chicago, F. Tennyson Neely, 1899). This book is not widely available, is in very good condition (and is a lovely thing). It is noteworthy for descriptive prose about St. Lawrence County. It is available for inspection in the Frank and Anne Piskor Reading Room.