Clubs, Chambers & Authorities
In the twentieth century, town boosters, including public organizations, such as NY State's Saratoga Springs Authority, and private groups, including the Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, began producing maps for visitors, branding and rebranding the city to appeal to changing tastes.
In this era, maps in brochures or pamphlets that could be picked up in stores showed how to get to the springs, or what to do once vacationers or conventioneers arrived.
Saratoga Spa Reservation
From the 1930s,the Saratoga Springs Authority publicized the new state "reservation" with its modern bath houses, drinking hall, hotel and research center. Designers emulated the feel of European spas, to entice "the nation" to get their spa treatments at home rather in the broad. Ads in the New York Times encouraged visitors to seek health and recreation, or to buy Saratoga Springs bottled water (at Macy's!) to help digestion, headaches and other ills.
This particular pamphlet highlighted Saratoga Springs' easy access from New York City (only 182 miles away!) and touted healthful rest, relaxation and recover for citizens of all 48 states. Although undated, the pamphlet's text and images inside seem to date it to the 1940s.
To explore more about building the Spa State Park, the Saratoga Springs Public Library offers the Dr. Walter S. McClellan scrapbooks.The Reservation became a State Park in 1963, emphasizing its (not-so) newly public nature.
Clubs and Chambers
The Lions Club map (ca. 1940) postcard offers one version of a map that the Chamber of Commerce produced as a pamphlet cataloguing the attractions of the city and Saratoga Spa (State Park).
The postcard was printed by the Tichnor Brothers company of Cambridge, MA, which created thousands of postcards, mostly of U.S. vacation destinations, in the 1930s and 1940s. Take some time to browse the Boston Public Library collection of Tichnor postcards on Flickr. There are over 100 postcards of Saratoga Springs, with emphasis on the racetrack, recreation (from skiing to golf), Saratoga Spa State Park, churches, libraries, private residences and downtown hotels.