Historic Map : Clark's Tours Advertising Pictorial Map of Guatamala, 1935, Vintage Wall Art

A unique c. 1935 pictorial promotional map of Guatemala advertising Clark's Tours. The map, probably based on from British sources, covers all of Guatemala with major rail lines, villages, ranges, towns, the Pan-American Highways, and smaller roads noted. Below the map is an illustration of Guatemalan men and women in traditional dress performing music and working on handicraft items. At the bottom of the map there are three views of the inside of the Mayan Inn, a still active hotel in the town of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango.

In 1927 Alfred S. Clark (1893 – 1937), an American expat living in Guatemala established a tour company focused on bringing Americas to Guatemala to experience traditional village life as well as see that country's amazing Mayan ruins. Recognizing a lack of western-style accommodations, Clark founded the Mayan Hotel Chichicastenango in 1932. The hotel, which is features in this poster, remains active to this day, long after Clark's death in 1937.

This poster was printed by Litografía Byron Zadik, a Guatemala City based printer of postcards and posters active in the 1930s and 40s. The image is printed using a color lithographic process on what appears to be a traditional Guatemalan made paper. The paper has a texture suggestive of some sort of long fiber, possibly corn husk base. Very unusual.

The map is undated, but based upon the printer Zadik, the hotel images, and Clark's lifespan we have loosely dated it to 1935. This poster is rare, we have identified no other examples.