Before The Internet,

and mass publishing for the masses, if you can imagine such a time,

 teachers as well as using books would sometimes rely on wall charts,

 and these by Levi Walter Yaggy, are considered some of the best, he used his publishing company, Western Publishing House of Chicago, to produce these wall charts,

 named the Geographical Portfolio, comprising Physical, Political, Geological, and Astronomical Geography, and it was the Astronomical Geography that really shone out, using a light box behind the chart it images would captivate school aged children,

 the popular set of maps and charts (an expanded second edition was released six years later) was intended for teachers to use in classroom settings,

 the two by three-foot sheets used clever composite images to convey the range of topography and animals around the world, resulting in dense caves and steep mountain peaks that could be straight out of the Trilogy of the Rings or other fantasy films,

 in addition to their imaginative designs and eye-catching color palettes, Yaggy made strides in the teaching aid field by incorporating interactive elements,

 each set included a 3-dimensional relief map of the United States and latches revealed hidden diagrams on individual charts,

 You can explore the full range of Yaggy’s Geographical Portfolio via digital scans on David Rumsey’s map website (where they are available as on-demand prints and as high-resolution downloads), 

 and can read more details about the charts on National Geographic,

what a great way to convey knowledge about our world in those pre Internet days.