Make America Porcine Again

Years ago, I found a post on the University of Michigan's Map Library blog. I consider it evergreen, as it is about two of my favorite things: Piggies and cartography! 

It seems like a good time to blog about it. After all, maps were the safest way to travel during the COVID19 pandemic. Old maps even allow one to travel in time, with sufficient imagination.

The UMich Map Library blog has been retired, sadly, although its archives are still accessible. In lieu of the Map Library blog, I turned to Big Think's Strange Maps. I located this excellent post, National Porcineographic: Portrait of America as a Young Hog.

Helping humans by helping pigs

William E. Baker was a 19th century tailor. He made his fortune thanks to a strategic alliance with what became the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company. (It was later acquired by Singer Sewing Machines.) Baker's philanthropy was extensive, but centered on his Hygienic Farming and Sanitary Cookery initiative. He wanted to improve human health by helping pigs.

Unvirtuous circle: Boston was a cesspool

New England rapidly industrialized, and the population grew along with it. An ecosystem evolved but it was of a distinctly pragmatic sort. The City of Boston instituted a garbage pick-up service but then disposed of the garbage anywhere and everywhere possible. Typical locations for garbage dumping were on the outskirts of the city or in neighboring communities. It was NOT environmentally friendly! Town and nearby country dwellers developed a recycling response: They fed the garbage to pigs.

W.E. Baker believed that this practice was the cause of much disease, in both swine and the people who consumed unwholesome pork. In 1875, he introduced a 'Sanitary Piggery' in rural Massachusetts. It was the cornerstone of Baker's contribution to the pure food movement.

"Baker’s Sanitary Piggery involved a clean environment and wholesome food for its porcine residents - it was even rumored they had individual beds, and slept under sheets. That may have been hyperbole, but it underscores Baker’s belief that public health depended greatly on sanitary food production."

He didn't blame pigs for the filth and squalor in which they, um, wallowed.

The world’s finest example of porcineography

The United States of Pig map commemorated the opening of W.E. Baker's Sanitary Piggery. 2500 copies of the map were produced as numbered lithographs. Few still exist. Most were given away as party favors to guests attending the event, i.e. as a Good-Cheer Souvenir. 

The map is reproduced below, in a smaller size than its original glory. I will try to remember how to make the image clickable, so that it may be enlarged for better viewing. My html is getting rusty from disuse.

The Porcineograph 

Cuteness abounds! Washington State has a curly tail wrapped around Alasqueue.

Subtle details in the porcineograph margins evoke America's history and regional variations. Quoting again from Strange Maps:

"The map itself is surrounded by a herd of pigs... The main trio is labelled, left to right, Hog & Ham & Pork. Hog is holding a plate of shrimp and what appears to be a palm tree. Ham is emblazoned with a patriotic slogan and holding an eagle’s nest containing a young chick and some yet to be hatched eggs. Pork is preparing a bean-based condiment..."

Manifest destiny: The whole hog

The porcineograph also reflects geopolitical concerns of the time. For example, the United States had its eye on Hawaii, which (like Alasqueue) was not yet a member of the Union. Map piggy conveys this by extending his faintly-outlined left hind leg from the California mainland, out over the Pacific Ocean. His hoof lightly rests on the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands. They are intuitively represented by bacon sandwiches, of course.

Cuba as extension of America's Spanish legacy?

Possible U.S. territorial expansion is indicated by piggy's front left leg. He is striding forward to touch Cuba, which is sausage-shaped.