From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow how maps name, claim, and inflame / [electronic resource] :
Mark Monmonier.
- University of Chicago Press, c2006.
- 1 online resource (xiv, 215 p.) : ill., maps.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-199).
Naming and mapping -- The quest for a national gazetteer -- Purging pejoratives -- Body parts and risqué toponyms -- Going native -- Your toponym or mine? -- Erasures -- Inscriptions -- Epilogue : naming rites.
Brassiere Hills, Alaska. Mollys Nipple, Utah. Outhouse Draw, Nevada. In the early twentieth century, it was common for towns and geographical features to have salacious, bawdy, and even derogatory names. In the age before political correctness, mapmakers readily accepted any local preference for place names, prizing accurate representation over standards of decorum. But later, when sanctions prohibited local use of racially, ethnically, and scatalogically offensive toponyms, names like Jap Valley, California, were erased from the national and cultural map forever. From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse.