Check out this Bay Area representation posted by Strange Maps, where the mapmaker honors Oakland through this two-handed perspective.  Our city appears in a position of prominence, along the right-hand index finger.

The Bay Area bridges also figure prominently because this cartoon was drawn back in 1938, only a few years after the Golden Gate and Bay spans were opened for business.   While I thought all those details meant the artist lived around here, I was mistaken.

Reginald Manning (1905-1986) drew this map, while serving as the editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Republic newspaper.  He penned cartoons there for 50 years, which were nationally syndicated.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist primarily focused on political cartoons.

Reg was an attentive tourist, though.  There’s a lot of scratchings around Oakland and nearby Berkeley, depicting our urban reaches really well.  We’ll accept this loving portrayal of Oakland – at least we’re not a large, blackened thumbnail like San Francisco.

(Kudos to CBS Eye on Blogs for discovering the map.)