THE MIDWEST.
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 Old Northwest:
- Detroit (©1968)
- Michigan (©1970)
- Illinois & Indiana (©1968)
- Chicago (©1969)
- The Twin Cities (©1968)
- Wisconsin & Minnesota (©1970)
Condition Notes: The box album we’ll place in limbo between “Used Good / Acceptable” due to its torn and frayed edges; but it is still intact, its original coloring vibrant (which we cannot say about most of the box albums we have seen). The six guides themselves are in great shape, with only a few bent edges and minor shelf wear to the covers. Chicago is the only guide that was used for its intended purpose, as a fun family educational event. There is a stain on its cover, this being the only guide with the “progress” stickers stuck in place; that said, the stickers are stuck “smartly” in place, the mentioned cover stain a minor one. Detroit, Illinois & Indiana, and The Twin Cities all contain their sticker sheets intact, while Michigan and Wisconsin & Minnesota are missing their sticker sheets.
Condition: Used Very Good.
American Geographical Society.
Nelson Doubleday Inc.
6 x 8.5" x 1.5" deep / 1.6 lb
