Jo Mora Yosemite Valley Poster

18 x 24

The drawing for this puzzle (dated 1931) is from the collection of the Yosemite Museum. Proceeds from sales benefit museum operations and educational programs in Yosemite National Park.

Joseph "Jo" Mora (1876-1947) was an illustrator, born in Uruguay and educated in the United States who created a number of humorous maps and posters of the national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. 

The original map is roughly 13x17" (33x43cm) and printed in color 1941 and 1949 by Yosemite Park and Curry Company (despite the 1931 copyright date). This map has been reprinted by the Yosemite Association (1996, enlarged to 18x24" or 46x61cm). An earlier map, printed 1931 in black and white by Jo Mora, was limited to 2000 copies and measures 20x26". The black and white has additional features that were later removed, such as the Sentinel Hotel, Zoo, and old Big Oak Flat Road.

Artist Joseph Jacinto Mora ("Jo Mora") was born in Uruguay in 1876. After moving to the United States, he studied art in the East, then worked for the Boston Herald as a cartoonist and illustrator. Mora came to California in 1903 to see an old friend in San Jose. In 1904 he lived in the Oraibi Hopi village and photographed and sketched the Hopi people. In 1907, he marred Grace Alma Needham and they moved to Mountain View, California. In the early 1920s he moved to Carmel to be near the Carmel Mission and work on a commission for a sarcophagus for Fr. Serra. In 1922 he moved to Pebble Beach where established a home and large studio. The Yosemite pictorial map was drawn in 1931. Joe Mora also produced a similar pictorial maps for the Grand Canyon, California, Los Angeles, 17 and Mile Drive. He also produced posters "Indians of North America," and a poster "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" showing evolution of the cowboy from the Spanish Conquistador to the modern rider. and He published three books. A Log of the Spanish Main, Trail Dust and Saddle Leather, and Californios. Jo Mora died in Monterey, California in 1947.