Searching for Space Mountain: Reading Disney maps

Our exhibition, Mirror, Mirror: Reflections of American Stories in Disney Parks, begins and ends with maps.

Why? Maps are wayfinding guides, helping travelers navigate. But they can also give clues to the deeper meaning of a place. The style, form, language, and imagery of a map can tell readers a lot about the time and culture in which it was created. Viewing maps of the same spaces made at different times is a good way to visualize cultural change.

Mirror, Mirror looks at how Disney Parks, having become American symbols, both represent and shape conversations about the American experience. The parks adapt their own narratives as the larger American narrative grows and changes. We can see these changes illustrated in Disney's "fun maps"—created as art—and guide maps, which are meant for wayfinding. Fun maps are intended to be gazed upon, to bring pleasure, to entertain, or perhaps to spark curiosity and excitement. Wayfinding maps give directions within a space to important destinations like restrooms and snacks. Both kinds of maps can serve as affordable (sometimes even free) souvenirs of visits. In the exhibition, an interactive display allows visitors to view an enlarged Disneyland fun map. The map is arranged on tiles which visitors can flip to learn more about the map’s art and the meaning of Disneyland’s design.

Since we can’t physically turn the tiles here, let’s take a digital look at some of the things these maps can tell us—besides, of course, the shortest route to Space Mountain or where to get ice cream!

Disney as America

From the very beginning, people the world over have seen Disney Parks as representative of American history and identity. Park designers built a celebration of what they considered American ideals into their creation. And for guests, visiting the park became a symbol of attainment and success—achieving "the American dream."  We can see this on early Disneyland fun maps which explicitly located the park in the United States and carried Walt Disney’s words dedicating it to “the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America.”

Many of the themed lands and attractions at Disney Parks tie directly to American myths or historic time periods, adding to their association with American identity. Even before one sees these places in person, the theming and symbols used on maps give each themed land a distinct personality, orienting the visitor to where that land exists in time and space. These symbolic representations—particularly when they’re reinforced by the immersive sights, scents, and sounds of a park visit—become the versions of history we most readily remember, shaping our collective memory of America.

Cover Art

Disney often uses the covers of their guide maps to advertise new attractions or special entertainment. But the image on the cover also sends messages about the types of guests Disney markets to and considers typical. This influences who feels welcome at the parks. Early covers generally featured white nuclear families in their imagery. Over time they have also come to feature individuals of color, individuals with disabilities, and same-sex couples.

Mapping Change

As America continually redraws itself and its collective identity, Disney maps are redrawn to reflect these cultural updates with new experiences or through changes to the names and descriptions of rides and lands. When Disneyland opened, it contained a section called the “Indian Village,” where Indigenous performers educated guests about the Plains Indians. Some believed these shows made Native stories more visible while others felt the performances reduced Indigenous culture to entertainment. By the late 1960s, the Red Power movement for indigenous self-determination was gaining acceptance and visibility across the country, changing the way Americans thought about Indigenous history. Comparing  a 1966 Disneyland fun map with one from the 2000s makes these larger social changes visible, illustrating how Disney's designers replaced the Indian Village with a land they believed would be less problematic (first as Bear Country, in 1971, and then as Critter Country in 1988).

In 2020 Disney announced a re-theming of Splash Mountain, a ride whose source material was grounded in racist depictions of African Americans in the post-Civil War South. The new theme would instead focus on the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog featuring Tiana, Disney’s first African American princess. While the re-theme had been in the planning stages before 2020, Disney chose to publicly announce their plans as the country reckoned with the pandemic of racism laid bare by the murder of George Floyd. When discussing the announcement, senior executive Carmen Smith cited Disney's desire to be "part of the healing journey of America."

The change on Disney Park maps from “Splash Mountain” to “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” is a clear example of how the surface level map change reflects much deeper social change occurring beyond the Disney Parks themselves.

Form = Function

The form a map takes indicates who it is meant to be used by. Intentionally or not, the availability (or lack thereof) of a map designed to be easy for YOU to read influences how welcome you might feel in a space, and whether you think you belong. As of 2022 Disney supplies maps translated into six languages, as well as Braille and 3D maps. Seeing the full array of maps on offer in different languages itself transmits a message of welcome and belonging to groups of many different cultural backgrounds.

Though today Disney offers digital apps that include their maps, wayfinding instructions, and a host of other information, they continue to provide physical maps—and people continue to collect them. In our increasingly online world, this is perhaps the best evidence of the cultural power of a physical Disney map.

There’s a lot to learn from maps besides how to get from point A to point B! The next time you pick one up, at a Disney Park or anywhere else, take a minute to examine what it might be telling you beyond where to find the bathroom.

 

Bethanee Bemis is a public historian specializing in political history. She is the author of Disney Theme Parks and America’s National Narratives: Mirror, Mirror for Us All and the curator of the exhibition Mirror, Mirror: Reflections of America in the Disney Parks at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where she works as a museum specialist.