Kirkuk – Iraq Petroleum Company Limited – 1952

Produced by Newman Neame Maps Ltd., London and printed in Great Britain, November 1952. Large-format pictorial promotional map illustrating the operational headquarters, industrial facilities and residential compounds of the Iraq Petroleum Company at Kirkuk, Iraq.

Executed in an elegant post-war modernist style, the map presents the vast petroleum infrastructure surrounding the Kirkuk oilfields, including pumping stations, pipelines, storage installations, workshops, laboratories, transport links and associated residential developments. The River Khassa and wider Kirkuk district are shown schematically, whilst a series of inset vignette illustrations depict key buildings, industrial processes and company amenities including housing, training facilities, sports grounds and public gardens.

The map was issued shortly after the completion and expansion of the Kirkuk–Banias pipeline system and forms part of a highly attractive series of promotional petroleum maps produced for the Iraq Petroleum Company during the early 1950s. Such maps were intended both as corporate publicity and as visual demonstrations of industrial modernity and infrastructural achievement in the Middle East during the immediate post-war period.

Particularly striking is the sophisticated graphic design, combining soft tonal colouring with diagrammatic clarity in a manner characteristic of mid-century British commercial cartography. The lower margin bears the imprint: “Produced by Newman Neame Maps Ltd London and printed in Great Britain November 1952”, whilst the design is credited to F. H. Reitz and J. Varney.

Large colour lithographic map.
Sheet size: 95.2cm x 60cm.

Condition: Folded as issued. A very good indeed, tight and clean copy with fresh colour throughout. There is a short tear with a small amount of loss to the upper left-hand margin, well away from the printed image. An uncommon and visually impressive survival documenting one of the twentieth century’s most important oil-producing regions.

Location: HO: Drawer D: 003684

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