The Beautiful Counties of (Historic) California

The vast majority of time I decline offers of advertisements.  In fact, I do not accept any funds for any post with the exception of Amazon.com links to books I reviewed.  I even tend to decline press releases.  So when cartographer David Frank McCarter reached out to me about his Beautiful Counties of California asking me to mention it I was almost ready to send him a "thanks but no thanks" e-mail.  However, the map is just too pretty not to mention. 

Here is part of the press release

The California decorative wall map uses California paintings to represent counties David Frank McCarter has launched a Kickstarter campaign (http://kck.st/1ahHrcE) to crowd fund his new artistic wall map of California, The Beautiful Counties of…California, which uses California paintings from the mid-1800s to the early-1900s to represent California’s 58 counties. 

“The paintings in the map were chosen to provide the map reader with a sense of place and history of this beautiful and geographically diverse state,” says McCarter. “For example, a painting of Mt. Shasta is used to represent Siskiyou County; California Redwoods for Del Norte and Humboldt Counties; scenes of Pomo Indians in Colusa and Lake Counties; and forty-niners in several of the counties that had large goldfields during the California Gold Rush. The map was made to do more than just show where places are, it was made to tell a story of the places themselves.” 

A table is provided on the right hand side of the map which lists the artists and their paintings that are used. Some of the famous artists that have paintings in the map include Albert Bierstadt, Edwin Deakin, Grace Hudson, Thomas Hill, and Charles Christian Nahl.
The map includes the county boundaries, county seats, and important cities of California. It measures 24” x 36” (standard frame size). 

If the project’s goal of $2000 is reached, the money will cover the cost of printing and shipping. He will also donate 100 of these California wall maps to elementary schools in low-income school districts in California to be used as educational tools in the classroom. For a $20 pledge, the contributor receives a map (shipping included) - other pledge levels are also available.