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This panoramic sketch map shows a regional view of the United States from Kansas City southward to Venezuela in 1896. On a railroad tower astride Kansas City, Uncle Sam shines a spotlight on a direct route from the railroad hub through productive farmland in the southern midwest to shipping ports in the Gulf of Mexico. Trains from the west and north stream into Kansas City, but the Kansas City Pittsburg & Gulf (KCP&G) railroad is the only departing railroad and it is moving toward the South. In the distance, ships carrying American products move in close succession past Cuba.
The View from Kansas City, 1896, reflects a selective perspective on American consciousness at the end of the century. The map is apolitical, yet current events and themes hover at the fringes of the spatial representation. In this image, the map is the tool of the businessman in order to promote a product, the medium to evoke nationalism, the spirit of the American pioneer and the promise of progress. As an advertisement for the developing KCP&G, the spatial organization is an emotional arrangement relating thriving business, fertile farms and a nation apparently well-situated in the global economy. The map belied the economic recession affecting the nation with debilitating fallout on farmers and agriculture. In part, The View from Kansas City, 1896, is arresting because of the novelty of the North-to-South perspective. The orientation of the national emphasis on railroad development during the nineteenth century lay on the east-west axis of the country, not on a north-south plane. Symbolically and practically, the traditional promise of new lands lay toward the now-disappearing western frontier; in this image, it is the middle south. Similarly, the focus of the American worldview customarily emphasized continuity and dissonance with the nation's European roots and ties; South America and Cuba reflect a new national directions. The images and accompanying text offer a blatant hard sell identifying the territory the new railroad will cross as the best all-around country on the continent and encouraging settlers to “procure a home cheap along the line of this great System.” They are urged to “Remember, this railroad is opening up for settlement a NEW country, and presents many advantages which older roads cannot offer you.”
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