Jo Mora’s Spectacular Pictorial Map of San Diego A whimsical map and historical account of the City of San Diego, created by the brilliant and incomparable Jo Mora in 1928. George Marston, owner of the Marston Department Store, commissioned Mora to create one of his signature cartes, with San Diego as the subject matter, for the 50th ‘Golden’ Anniversary of The Marston Company. As a prominent philanthropist and benefactor of the city, George W. Marston eventually earned the unofficial title of “San Diego’s First Citizen”. It has been suggested that Mora and Marston probably met at the Bohemian Grove. George Marston ordered only 2,000 copies of Mora’s map to be printed — as commemorative gifts, after which the plates were destroyed. The map consists of a centerpiece bird’s-eye view of the San Diego Bay and the Pacific coastline from La Jolla to Tijuana, surrounded by a decorative border, made of dozens of inset illustrations, depicting historical figures, events and landmarks. The entire carte is sprinkled with vignettes of humorous and whimsical drawings with captions, related to the history of San Diego and Southern California. (One such drawing shows Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the discoverer of San Diego Bay, perched in a crow’s nest atop of the mainmast of his ship, looking over downtown San Diego, exclaiming: “Caramba! You’d never know the old place now.”)
Main title: City of San Diego; Full title: This limned Carte portraying with most exacting fidelity the History, Romance and Humour of the glorious City of San Diego by the Pacific, likewise showing the Noble Harbour and its surrounding Terraine, is present to you herewith by The Marston Company in Souvenir of its Golden Anniversary and dedicated to the memory of that bold Navigator and Discoverer of this Port Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, R.I.R.
{The map is available in its original size of 22” x 27”, as well as two standardized (4:5 ratio) sizes of 16 in x 20 in and 24 in x 30 in. In order to protect the integrity of the original artwork, the two standardized sizes have been achieved by a slight recropping of the margins. The artwork itself is identical in all three sizes.}
• Whimsical Map & History of San Diego, California, 1928, Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora (for The Marston Co.)
• Fine Art Premium Giclée (Gouttelette) Print (100% cotton 340 gsm textured fine art paper)
• Made in USA