Svenskt Tenn's Maps

Josef Frank's America Maps

During World War II and the years in New York, Josef Frank drew the now well-known Manhattan print. He also created a motif which is not as well-known as a map print, but which is nevertheless a depiction of geographical areas, namely Dixieland, as the American south is sometimes called.

In Manhattan, Josef Frank has portrayed a map of the island. Central Park and the northern tip of the island fit naturally into rectangles, where the street network in red and white balances against the winding walkways in the green park. One of the rectangles also shows Washington Bridge, Cloisters and Inwood Park.

It was here, in Park Terrace Gardens, not far from the northernmost part of Broadway, that Josef Frank lived together with his wife Anna. The southern tip and the central part around the intersection between Broadway and Sixth Avenue are instead depicted in circles, where the harbour piers are so strongly emphasized, that the contour almost become fuzzy.

In the Dixieland print, Josef Frank has depicted the Atlantic and surrounding continents – a global Dixieland where red Africa is filled with giant sunflowers and the vast Amazon is permeated by watermelons.

Svenskt Tenn's Maps