Ruth Taylor White

Ruth Taylor White (1896–1985) was born in Oregon, the daughter of painter John S. Taylor and sister of Della Taylor Hoss, herself a noted pictorial cartographer. White coined her own term for her discipline — “carto-graphy” — and became one of the foremost practitioners of the pictorial map form in 20th-century America.

In the spring of 1930 she traveled to Hawaii, receiving a commission from the Hawaii Tourist Bureau that resulted in a celebrated series of five pictorial maps of the Hawaiian Islands, published in 1931. Her Hawaiian maps, which documented golf courses and yacht clubs alongside heiaus, sites connected to Hawaiian royalty, and traditional activities such as hula, surfing, and hukilau, are among the most sought-after works in American pictorial cartography.

White’s most famous production is the pictorial atlas Our USA: A Gay Geography (1935), published with her brother.