Born in Salem, Oregon, in 1899, Ruth Taylor White was one of America’s foremost cartographers with drawing skills and a sense of humor and whimsy that delighted many.

Her family moved to California and Ruth won an art scholarship to Stanford University in 1915. She became a popular cartoonist among her fellow students and was named editor of the Daily Palo Alto, the first woman in that post.

In 1919, she went to New York to study at the Institute of Art before returning to California.

From 1928 to 1945, a period described as the golden age of pictorial mapping, Ruth created many miniature masterpieces.

She created this wonderful pictorial map of California’s wine country, from San Diego in the south to Eureka in the north, for San Francisco’s Wine Advisory Board.

She also created pictorial maps for all the US states and witty maps for the Hawaiian Tourist Board.

This wine map of California was used as the front cover of the wine list in the Commissioned Officers Mess at Alameda Naval Air Station.

Previously known as Alameda Airport, wetlands at the west end of Alameda Island on the east shore of San Francisco Bay had been filled in 1927 to form the airport which had an east-west-runway, three hangars and a yacht harbor.

Pan American World Airways used the yacht harbor as the California terminal for China Clipper trans-Pacific flights beginning in 1935.

In 1936, the city of Alameda ceded the airport to the US government, Pan Am shifted its terminal to Treasure Island and Congress gave its approval for construction of naval air station facilities, including an aircraft carrier berthing pier.

Naval operations began in 1940 and Alameda remained an important naval base during World War II and for decades afterwards. From 1949 to 1953, the Navy based the Lockheed R6V Constitution – the largest airplane ever listed on the Navy inventory at NAS Alameda.

During the Vietnam War, the base was homeport to the aircraft carriers Coral Sea, Hanock, Oriskany, Enterprise, Ranger and Carl Vinson.

The base was closed in 1997. Since 2000, the city of Alameda has been planning the redevelopment of the former Naval Air Station.

The outstandingly talented Ruth Tayor White died in 1985.

Courtesy Private Collection.