The Original Silicon Valley Map & Calendar [1994]

Description

This fascinating pictorial map offers a snapshot of the computer companies and businesses comprising Silicon Valley just before the five year tech bubble was about to begin. It was part of a series of 1994 calendar maps sponsored by different companies; in this case the sponsor was ICOT Corporation.

The dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble caused by excessive speculation of Internet-related companies in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Composite stock market index rose 400%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble.

But the crash was still years away, and our bright and colorful map gives a sense of optimism that characterized this time and place. It shows well-known companies such as Apple, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Cisco Systems, but perhaps more interestingly, it also features companies no longer in existence. Long before the ubiquity of internet search, maps like this served a dual purpose of promoting the Valley itself, and also serving as a kind of who’s who in the tech world.

Runners, bikers, Stanford University, and proximity to San Francisco all portray the area as an attractive place to live or visit, and, of course, invest.