THE SOUTH / MID-AMERICA.
History / Educational / Travel, c. 1960s - early 1970s.
(Box Album: 6 guides per)
Building on the popularity of their “Around The World” series, publisher Nelson Doubleday teamed up once again with Sawyer’s—makers of the wildly popular View Master “in stereo” slide-reel viewer—to create this domestic guide series. Released volume by volume starting in the late 1950s on into the early 1970s, the “Know Your America Program” was part history, part travelogue, part family entertainment. Brimming with civic pride, the series would cover all American states (combining a handful and grouping several others by region), the then largest cities, natural and national landmarks, major commercial industries of the era, and the military academies. Each guide arrived monthly as part of a subscription and included a related View Master reel. The cardboard pull-drawer “albums” (that snugly held 6 guides) were sent out a few times a year to house growing collections, sticker labels in each guide allowing families to keep track of what box held what guides. (The majority of the albums that we have found are, sadly, in various conditions of falling apart, with the reels being an exceptionally rare find.) As part of the subscription, an actual View Master viewer could be ordered too; though series’ creators certainly took into account the fact that most American households in those days already had one. Having enlisted subject-matter expert assistance from the American Geographical Society (a geologic and cartographic organization that pre-dates The National Geographic Society), each of the robust guides ran to exactly 64 pages. And though some show glaring historical blind spots by today’s standards, the guides are mostly even, fair, and on occasion unsparing in the writing. They are for sure professionally done and exhibit a proud country in the post World War II era scaling the heights of its powers. Each guide even included the mentioned fold-out pages of photographic stickers for families to mark their “virtual travel” progress through each guide.
The Greater South:
- Kentucky & Tennessee (©1969)
- Gulf South Central States (©1969)
- Arkansas & Missouri (©1971)
- The Mississippi River (©1970)
- New Orleans (©1967)
- Dallas (©1974)
Condition Notes: Aside from the standard shelf wear common for used softcovers—a few slightly bent corners, some light back cover scratches, etc.—this set is nearly pristine for its 50+ years of age. We have to guess that they were (sadly) not used as intended: part history lesson + family entertainment. None of the guides contain any “stuck in place” stickers. Four guides (KY & TN, Miss River, AR & MO, Dallas) have all their original sticker sheets in place, untouched; with only the Gulf South Central and New Orleans guides missing their sticker sheets. All but New Orleans come with slick glossy covers.
Condition: Used Very Good.
American Geographical Society.
Nelson Doubleday Inc.
6 x 8.5" x 1.5" deep / 1.6 lb
