I'm always thinking of what pictures to put on the walls of a boys room or on the walls of the kids section of a library. I've blogged about this before but I can't help returning to the subject with new pictures. What do you think of them?
Those are Maori above. Maori photos were just made for boys rooms.
So are maps. Blank maps (above) are great because they let your mind fill in the details.
I don't think this company (detail above) makes historical maps anymore, but maybe I'm mistaken.
Old maps (above)...you can look at them endlessly.
Every boy needs a picture of the jungle (above).
Ditto the Greeks (above). The ancient Greeks earned our respect by opposing barbarism with strength and intellect. That's a bit of a simplification since the Persians weren't exactly barbarians, but the image of the Greek hoplites still projects a primal power.
This picture (above) would have earned a place on my wall when I was a little kid. I was aching to fly. The airplane rides in amusement parks filled me with longing for the real thing. I feel like I betrayed my young self by not promoting kid flight as an adult but, really, how could I? That's a tough nut to crack.
A letter-size version of this picture (above) needs to be on every kid's wall. What's on the island? I don't know... King Kong? Doc Savage's lab? Dinosaurs? The Cyclops? This mysterious island seems to demand that the viewer drop what he's doing and commit to a life of adventure.
I used to love the pictures in the National Geographic. If Tin Tin had been a real kid he'd have no doubt had pictures like this on his bulletin board.
When I was a kid I was smitten by, of all things, The Hippocratic Oath. I would gladly have put it on my wall if I'd found a copy. This version (above) isn't designed very well, but the content is terrific. I love the way it starts, by invoking the gods and binding the student to care for the teacher and his sons. It's interesting that the doctor is forbidden to use a knife to remove stones, but must hand over the task to a surgeon, which is considered a seperate, and maybe lesser trade.
Also when I was a kid: drug stores were covered with Parke-Davis illustrations of medical innovators like Jenner and Lister. The one that moved me most was the one of Louis Pasteur, the great bacteriologist. Spurred on by the famous Paul Muni film, I'd have put his picture up in a heartbeat if I'd had one.
Actually, I have a post card picture of him up now, on a bulletin board in my bedroom. I figure I owe the guy.
8 comments:
Eddie I love your work... just wanted to let you know that the plural of Maori is Maori.
Aha! Some will say, in fact it's Maori! They are correct. I just don't have that key on my keyboard.
Eddie, have you read "The Dangerous Book for Boys"?
I beg to differ, Eddie. If you want your boy to grow up right, you'll find a much more suitable selection here.
I had the Historical Map of England and Wales by that company on my bedroom wall. You left off Aviation Art. I had a WW2 bomber painting on my wall too.
Mark: Thanks! I made the change!
Stephen: Yeah, I read some of it. It was a step in the right dierection, but was still pretty tame. Books like that used to have more bite.
Mike: Haw! Selma Hayek...I should have known!
Steve: Wow! The English one is the hardest to get. I hope you saved it.
Don't forget a globe. When I was a kid I loved to spin it really fast, close my eyes, and stop it with one finger. Where ever that finger landed was where I was going to live. It was funny to imagine myself living in Turkmenistan or the Faroe Islands. I also enjoyed raised relief maps. I would run my fingers across it, or crouch down and pretend I was a giant. National Geographic make incredible maps like this one. There is a copy of that map at my work, and I could look at that one for a long, long time. My other favorite map when i was a kid (and today) are turn of the century, bird's-eye-view lithographs. I know what you're thinking: that's a very specific kind of map for a kid to like. Well, I didn't know what they were called at the time. But there was one tucked away at the central library, and it was enormous. It was of the city where I lived, and it's endlessly fascinating, especially for its accuracy and draftsmanship.
Great post Eddie, I never realized how important maps were to me as a kid until now!
Alberto: Thanks for the links to the maps. I especially like relief maps. You can buy relief maps of the world and those are too caricatured to be useful. I prefer reliefs of smaller areas like a region or a state or a county.
Do jungles still exist? I thought they were replaced by "rainforests."
Brian O.
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