Focus on View of the World from 9th Avenue and explore the Inspiration.
The New York Times geography editor, Tim Wallace, notes that perception-based map humor has existed since at least a January 16, 1908 Chicago Tribune front page cartoon by John T. McCutcheon, titled "Map of the United States as seen by the Finance Committee of the United States Senate". That cartoon depicts big eastern cities (Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and Albany, New York) as the main focus of bald, old, cigar-smoking white men in the United States Senate as they temporarily resolved the Panic of 1907 with the Aldrich-Vreeland Act until they could work out the Federal Reserve Act a few years later. It shows Chicago's location near a depiction of Lake Michigan as a "western village", which may be a midwestern dig at Congressional attention focused on the East Coast of the United States.Various authors state that McCutcheon presaged Steinberg with his July 27, 1922 Chicago Tribune front page cartoon titled "The New Yorker’s Map of the United States", The prototypical New Yorker is depicted dressed like Mr. Monopoly or British aristocracy in tweed clothing and a deerstalker hat. By playing host in the work, he invites the audience to observe from his viewpoint. In McCutcheon's work, the rest of America is New York City's backyard including Detroit (the home of the automobile industry) depicted as the garage and Chicago (with Union Stock Yards) as the food warehouses both situated correctly along the Great Lakes that are presented as a fish pond. New England is his schoolhouse and farmers are his “tenants”. Washington is depicted as an ancillary wing to the building that represents New York City, while livestock ranches symbolize the West, mines symbolize California and oil wells symbolize Texas, all showing that the rest of America exists for the benefit of New York, which likely inspired Daniel Wallingford. Of the various New Yorker satirizations, this map, with its sharp criticism, is perceived to have the most socio-political commentary."The New Yorker’s Map of the United States" is falsely titled in a digital edition of the Chicago Tribune article as “The New Yorker’s Idea of the United States,” which is a separate 1930s perception-based humor map by Wallingford. In Wallingford's parody, which he self-published in 1932, and which was professionally published by Columbia University Press in 1936, Minneapolis and Indianapolis are depicted as the Twin Cities. It depicts Manhattan and Brooklyn both on a scale larger than most states and portrays Wilmington, Delaware as if it is in the West. Wallingford's map, which makes a similar statement to Steinberg's, is presented in a style that evokes memories of early European exploration maps. Although originally a black-and-white work, it is now produced with colorization. It was republished several times with some sources showing 1937 and 1939 publication dates.In 2015, Bloomberg News presented another stereotypical self-centered view of New York City from 1970 that depicts Manhattan as 80% of the world and the other four boroughs as another 10%. The South is reduced to references to Texas, Miami and Washington DC. It eliminates the Midwest by melding New Jersey with the West Coast, and presents only trivial foreign depictions. The authorship of this rendition is anonymous.Steinberg most likely was inspired by McCutcheon's 1922 map although people commonly trace it back to Wallingford. Even someone expert enough to be a senior geography editor for The New York Times thought Wallingford was the inspiration until he stumbled upon McCutcheon.
Indianapolis Minneapolis Twin Cities East Coast of the United States deerstalker Boston New York Manhattan tweed Chicago Union Stock Yards Wilmington, Delaware New England New Jersey United States Senate Bloomberg News  Brooklyn Lake Michigan The New Yorker Chicago Tribune Great Lakes Aldrich-Vreeland Act New York City Washington, DC socio-political Albany, New York Panic of 1907 Bloomberg News Europe Miami Columbia University Press 1930s Detroit Texas The New York Times Mr. Monopoly Philadelphia black-and-white Federal Reserve Act John T. McCutcheon