MacDonald "Max" Gill (1884-1947) was a renowned British architect,
letterer, mural painter, and graphic artist of the early twentieth
century. He is perhaps best known for his pictorial poster maps,
including the whimsical 1914 "Wonderground Map," which proved so popular
with riders that it became the first London Underground poster to be
sold commercially to the public and is today considered to have saved
the network by increasing off-peak travel.
He enjoyed close links with many leading figures in the arts and crafts
world, including the architects Sir Charles Nicholson, Sir Edwin
Lutyens, and Halsey Ricardo; Edward Johnston, one of the fathers of
modern calligraphy; Frank Pick, the British transport administrator who
commissioned many icons of the London Underground's identity; and his
brother, the sculptor and typographer Eric Gill. Though his legacy is
overshadowed by his controversial brother, MacDonald Gill was
nevertheless a significant and influential artist of his time. Today,
his painted panel maps decorate the Palace of Westminster and
Lindisfarne Castle, and the alphabet he designed in 1918 is still used
on the British military headstone.
With a four-decade career spanning two world wars, the decline of the
British Empire, and countless innovations in communications technology,
his work takes on heightened historical importance, as it reflects the
remarkable events and developments of his era. Drawing chiefly from
family archives, MacDonald Gill: Charting a Life is the first book to
tell the story of this complex and talented man.
