Bananaland [A Map of the Foreign Empire of the United Fruit Company]
Colour-printed full-page pictorial persuasive and corporate map, 1933
Published in Fortune’s March 1933 United Fruit Company investigation, Ernest Hamlin Baker’s brilliantly theatrical map turns corporate logistics into political geography. From New Orleans and Mexico across the Caribbean and Central America to Colombia, it marks banana and sugar plantations, ports, Tropical Radio stations and the routes of United Fruit’s Great White Fleet and British subsidiary Elders & Fyffes. The invented realm of “Bananaland” and the formal companion title “A Map of the Foreign Empire…” deliberately subordinate national borders to the company’s infrastructure and reach. Rich in ships, fruit and caricature, it is both superb 1930s magazine design and a striking contemporary critique of the banana empire—an unusually vivid intersection of persuasive cartography, corporate history and American power in Latin America.
CAPTION BELOW PICTURE: 'Bananaland [A Map of the Foreign Empire of the United Fruit Company]'
DATE PRINTED: Map drawn and dated 1932. Published March 1933
IMAGE SIZE: Approx 35.5 x 28.5cm, 13.75 x 11 inches (Large)
ARTIST/CARTOGRAPHER/ENGRAVER: Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889–1975), artist and cartographer
PROVENANCE: Fortune Magazine
TYPE: Colour-printed full-page pictorial persuasive and corporate map
VERSO: There is unrelated magazine content printed on the reverse side.
CONDITION: Good; suitable for framing. Please check the scan for any blemishes prior to making your purchase. Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated. I offer a no questions asked return policy - see below.
AUTHENTICITY: This is an authentic historic print, published at the date stated above. I do not offer reproductions. It is not a modern copy. The term 'original' when applied to a print means that it was printed at the first or original date of publication; it does not imply that the item is unique. 'Print' means any image created by applying an inked block to paper or card under pressure by any method including wood engraving, steel engraving, copperplate, wood cut and lithography.
REMARKS: FRANCE: Gravures et Cartes anciennes. DEUTSCHLAND: Alte Lankarten und Stadt ansichten. ITALIA: Stampe e Mappe antiche. ESPAÑA: Mapas antiquos y impresiones antiguas. E and OE. Force Majeure. English law shall apply.
RETURNS POLICY: I offer a no questions returns policy. All I ask is that you pay return shipping and mail back to me in original condition, suitably packed & insured, within 14 days of receipt.