"The immigrants we welcome today and tomorrow will carry on this tradition and help us to retain, reinvigorate and strengthen the American spirit."

Important vintage pictorial map by Daniela Passal, issued as a companion to John F. Kennedy's A Nation of Immigrants pamphlet in 1959.

The map attempts to communicate the diversity of America's population through ethnic caricature: in Missouri, a German man in lederhosen lifts a stein of beer; in California, a Chinese man with a Fu Manchu does the same with a cup of tea; in New York, a rabbi uses a shofar and an Italian man in a tuxedo sings into a microphone. There is an additional series of images intended to reflect the industries of the states: cars in Michigan; cows and beer in Wisconsin; an atom in New Mexico.

Strikingly absent from the map is a mention of Africa or Africa slavery; the two figures working cotton fields in the South are both white, and the area is interspersed with mentions of English and French immigration but none of African. A black man is shown playing a trumpet in Alabama.

Surrounding the map is a list of ethnicities, Armenians through Portuguese, though again, "Africans" is conspicuously absent.

The map includes the following explanation of its publication: "This map is designed as a companion piece to John F. Kennedy's pamphlet, "A Nation of Immigrants." Additional copies of this map may be obtained ( @ 25¢ each ) from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 515 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N.Y."

In the lower-left corner is a small explanatory essay:

The United States of America is, indeed, a nation of immigrants--a democratic society of more than 170 million individuals composed almost entirely of immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. All told, some forty million immigrants have come to our shores since the beginning of American history...

These are some of yesterday's immigrants who have supplied a continuous flow of creative abilities and ideas that have enriched our nation. The immigrants we welcome today and tomorrow will carry on this tradition and help us to retain, reinvigorate and strengthen the American spirit.

Rarity

Though the map cannot have been especially rare when it was produced, it is not seen often on the market today; this is the first time we have offered the map for sale. OCLC locates a single separate example at the University of Minnesota. It would appear that Harvard University also has an example.