Alexander Gross was a Hungarian citizen who immigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 20th century. He founded Geographia Ltd a map publishing firm. Although respected, the firm had joined a crowded and competitive field, with contemporaries such as Edward Stanford, A. and K. Johnston together with their imprint G. W. Bacon and John Bartholomew among others. Despite a valiant effort and initial success, the firm went bankrupt under his direction although the name survived. Gross left the firm and emigrated again to the United States where, confusingly, he founded the Geographia Map Company. He died in 1958.



This large folding map of the world was issued to compete with several existing examples of maps on this format produced by the firms mentioned above. The geography of the map is adequate as it relates to exploration although much of the pioneering work performed in the South Pole is hidden by multiple insets. Simultaneously, little is shown on the North Pole. Emulating several other wall maps of the period, the British Empire is coloured red and the logistics net linking the world, both maritime and terrestrial, is of prime importance. Sea routes are shown with departure and destination ports together with time taken between the two points; railways are shown, albeit faintly. Telegraph cables and stations are also prominent.



However, it is a new form of logistics which is the most interesting feature on this map. It highlights a series of pioneering air routes at the dawn of that industry. These include the route of the first flight from the United Kingdom to Australia performed by Sir Ross Smith in 1919. Another route shows the flight of Sir John Alcock, the first man to make an uninterrupted transatlantic flight, from Connemara in Ireland to St. Johns in Newfoundland again in 1919. Marked just above Alcock's transatlantic route is the flight of the R-34, a rigid airship commissioned by the Royal Air Force, which flew across the Atlantic just a few weeks after Alcock's, on July 2-6th 1919. Further South is the route of the NC-4, a flying boat. Piloted by an American crew, this was the first time a flight had been successfully made across the Atlantic by that country, although as a flying boat, it made numerous stops. It took off in New York State and 19 days later arrived in Lisbon, Portugal on May 31st. Another pioneering flight can be seen across the interior of Africa from Cairo to Cape Town, flown by Pierre van Ryneveld in 1920.



Due to its publishing date of c.1920, these flights are a very early and unusual feature on a map and separate it from many of its contemporaries.

Folded. [WLD3938]