- Shop
- OFFICIAL AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK, 1917: Volume A, New York City and the Metropolitan District
OFFICIAL AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK, 1917: Volume A, New York City and the Metropolitan District
OFFICIAL AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK, 1917: Volume A, New York City and the Metropolitan District
A scarce and attractive issue of the Official Automobile Blue Book from 1917 and the first in the series to singularly focus on New York City. Primarily a turn-by-turn text guide in the years prior to anything resembling an organized system of marked highways, the Blue Books, published between 1901 and 1929, were popular, indispensable guides, and an essential precursor to the American road map.
Founding editor Charles Howard Gillette produced the first issue in 1901, with a narrow focus on the northeast. The book expanded into regional coverage as it progressed and in 1917 this first issue to specialize solely in New York City was published.
A folding map in the front of the volume contains a large "General Index Map" ; two smaller maps showing "General Points of Interest" in Upper and Lower Manhattan ; and a "Route Chart of This Volume." The guide is additionally illustrated by dozens more partial and full page printed maps, illustrated ads, halftone photo reproductions, etc.. An unused membership card to the Blue Book Touring Club is present between pp. 228-229 along with a 4pp. ad and unused certificate between pp. 320-321, all suggesting this remains largely as-issued and a remarkably intact example.
The personalized gilt stamped name to the outer wrappers assigns this to the previous ownership of Adelbert B. Swetland (1864-1931), onetime general manager (along with this brother, Horace, president) of the Class Journal Company, a publisher responsible for multiple editions (including the very first from 1901) of this very guide as well as automotive magazines and trade publications including Motor World, Motor Age, the Tire Rate Book, etc... The archival trail is murky, though the Swetlands took a controlling interest in the Blue Book Publishing Co. at some point around 1909 and were likely its principal owners at the time of publication of the present volume.
This appears unrecorded in OCLC and we are unable to locate any examples in current commerce or auction records. A New York City and early motoring rarity with a compelling association to early automotive publishing.
[Automotive Maps and Guidebooks]. OFFICIAL AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK, 1917: Volume A, New York City and the Metropolitan District, Embracing a Radius of 100 Miles from Columbus Circle. New York: The Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1917. [624]pp. Approximately 9 1/4" x 5 1/2." Black leather over flexible card wrappers. Gilt title illustration to front above a gilt stamped ownership name: "A.B. SWETLAND." Sewn-in ribbon marker with a plastic illustrated Texaco card attached to one end. Mild wear to leather at corners, including some light chipping to lower end of spine and a mild area of discolor to front, lower right. Interior clean, unmarked. A very good copy.
see: BAUER, John T. ; "The Official Automobile Blue Book, 1901–1929: Precursor to the American Road Map” ; Cartographic Perspectives, Number 62, Winter 2009. pp. 4-27.
A scarce and attractive issue of the Official Automobile Blue Book from 1917 and the first in the series to singularly focus on New York City. Primarily a turn-by-turn text guide in the years prior to anything resembling an organized system of marked highways, the Blue Books, published between 1901 and 1929, were popular, indispensable guides, and an essential precursor to the American road map.
Founding editor Charles Howard Gillette produced the first issue in 1901, with a narrow focus on the northeast. The book expanded into regional coverage as it progressed and in 1917 this first issue to specialize solely in New York City was published.
A folding map in the front of the volume contains a large "General Index Map" ; two smaller maps showing "General Points of Interest" in Upper and Lower Manhattan ; and a "Route Chart of This Volume." The guide is additionally illustrated by dozens more partial and full page printed maps, illustrated ads, halftone photo reproductions, etc.. An unused membership card to the Blue Book Touring Club is present between pp. 228-229 along with a 4pp. ad and unused certificate between pp. 320-321, all suggesting this remains largely as-issued and a remarkably intact example.
The personalized gilt stamped name to the outer wrappers assigns this to the previous ownership of Adelbert B. Swetland (1864-1931), onetime general manager (along with this brother, Horace, president) of the Class Journal Company, a publisher responsible for multiple editions (including the very first from 1901) of this very guide as well as automotive magazines and trade publications including Motor World, Motor Age, the Tire Rate Book, etc... The archival trail is murky, though the Swetlands took a controlling interest in the Blue Book Publishing Co. at some point around 1909 and were likely its principal owners at the time of publication of the present volume.
This appears unrecorded in OCLC and we are unable to locate any examples in current commerce or auction records. A New York City and early motoring rarity with a compelling association to early automotive publishing.
[Automotive Maps and Guidebooks]. OFFICIAL AUTOMOBILE BLUE BOOK, 1917: Volume A, New York City and the Metropolitan District, Embracing a Radius of 100 Miles from Columbus Circle. New York: The Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1917. [624]pp. Approximately 9 1/4" x 5 1/2." Black leather over flexible card wrappers. Gilt title illustration to front above a gilt stamped ownership name: "A.B. SWETLAND." Sewn-in ribbon marker with a plastic illustrated Texaco card attached to one end. Mild wear to leather at corners, including some light chipping to lower end of spine and a mild area of discolor to front, lower right. Interior clean, unmarked. A very good copy.
see: BAUER, John T. ; "The Official Automobile Blue Book, 1901–1929: Precursor to the American Road Map” ; Cartographic Perspectives, Number 62, Winter 2009. pp. 4-27.