The United Nations Map of the World

London &: Edinburgh, John Bartholomew &, 1946. Folding map, 70 x 96 cm, printed in colours, laid on linen as issued, printed labels on verso: title and advertisement for the 1948 first edition of Bartholomew’s ‘Regional Atlas of the World’. The United Nations was established in October 1945, and Bullock’s map is a joyful celebration of what promised to be a more effective successor to the League of Nations. Prominence is given to wartime allies: the USA, the USSR and the Republic of China. As well as carrying the coats of arms of founder member states, the map is liberally adorned with improving classical, biblical and literary quotations, and substantial extracts from the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations Declaration. The seas are crowded with ships and aircraft, representing traders and explorers from Magellan to Amy Johnson, and other vignettes reflect the achievements of human civilisation. Bullock was a Civil Servant, but he designed decorative thematic and historical maps for Edinburgh publisher John Bartholomew & Son Ltd between the late 1930s and the 1960s. Many of his historical maps and his children’s map of London had a long life (and in some cases were reprinted into the 1970s) but others, such as his map of the 1938 Empire Exhibition held in Glasgow, or indeed this map of the fledgling U.N., are specific to a time and place and have become uncommon. Map