DESCRIPTION: Unrecorded large-format persuasive advertising map of the United States issued by Beech-Nut for the 1941-1942 radio season, boldly presenting the company’s national broadcast coverage. The country is rendered in bright yellow, overprinted with station call letters in red, while surrounding text proclaims that Beech-Nut advertising combines Red, Columbia, Blue, and Mutual stations "not possible to obtain on any single network." The sheet emphasizes scale and power, noting 172 stations, 38 of them 50,000-watt outlets, and nearly 1,000 Beech-Nut Gum and Beechies ads every week. The result is a striking visual inventory of American radio geography on the eve of World War II.
The language makes clear that this was not intended for the general public. Instead, it was designed to persuade wholesalers, grocery chains, druggists, and regional distributors that Beech-Nut’s campaign reached every part of the country at night when radio audiences were largest. By highlighting 50,000-watt clear-channel stations in red and stressing multi-network placement, the map argues that Beech-Nut’s coverage exceeds what any single network could provide. It is, in effect, a sales instrument aimed at convincing the trade that consumer demand was being nationally manufactured and that retailers should stock accordingly.
As an artifact, the piece documents a transitional moment in American broadcast advertising, when sponsors strategically assembled cross-network station lists to maximize reach. The map translates invisible airwaves into cartographic form, making corporate media strategy tangible. Combining commercial ephemera with radio history, it stands as an unusual and compelling intersection of cartography, marketing, and early 1940s national media infrastructure.Based on the internal evidence, the map was most likely produced in mid- to late-1941 at the outset of the 1941-1942 radio season. The text is written in present and forward-looking language, describing Beech-Nut’s advertising as currently operating across a combination of Red, Columbia, Blue, and Mutual stations and noting certain outlets “coming to 50,000 watts during the fall,” phrasing consistent with a campaign launch rather than a retrospective summary. The absence of wartime messaging, rationing references, or austerity cues further supports a pre- or very early-war printing, making summer or early fall 1941 the most probable date of issue.
Founded in 1891 in Canajoharie, New York, Beech-Nut Packing Company first built its reputation not on gum but on high-quality smoked meats and food products sold in distinctive glass jars and tins. The firm emphasized purity and consistency at a time when branded, packaged foods were beginning to replace bulk counter sales, and its early labels prominently featured the beech tree emblem as a mark of reliability. By the early twentieth century, as the company expanded into chewing gum and confections, it applied the same packaging philosophy: clean graphic design, bold brand identification, and tightly controlled distribution. Beech-Nut’s packaging strategy helped position it as a trustworthy national brand in the emerging era of mass advertising and prepared the ground for the broad radio campaigns of the 1930s and early 1940s.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1941
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: N/A
CONDITION: Very good.
Clean. One horizontal and one vertical fold. Verso is blank.
COLORING: Process color.
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 16
" x
12 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION:
PRICE: $350
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