If ticket books are the passport, guidebooks and maps are the travelogue. From the first 1955 souvenir booklet to the giant fold-out "fun maps" painted by Imagineer Sam McKim, Disneyland's paper guides recorded the park year by year — which lands existed, which attractions were new, what everything cost. That makes them doubly valuable: beautiful objects and the reference that dates everything else. This guide covers both, and sits in our Disneyland Memorabilia series alongside ticket books and postcards.
Key Takeaways
- Souvenir guidebooks ran from 1955; pictorial souvenir books and "Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland" editions change almost yearly.
- Fun maps: the 1958 Sam McKim map is the icon; revised editions followed through the 1960s and beyond.
- Date by attraction lists, lands, prices, cover art and copyright line.
- Folds as issued are fine; extra folds, tape, pinholes and fading are not. Reprints are common — check printing.
The guidebooks
Disneyland sold several kinds of printed guide, and the names overlap, so here's the landscape:
The souvenir guidebook (1955 onward). Small, inexpensive (10¢–50¢ in the early years), photo-heavy, often titled simply Disneyland or Walt Disney's Disneyland, published by Disneyland Inc. and later Walt Disney Productions. New editions appeared nearly every year, which is why they're such good dating tools: the edition that introduces the Matterhorn is 1959; the one with the Haunted Mansion is 1969.
The pictorial souvenir book. Larger format, more pages, more "keepsake" than guide — the thing you bought to remember the trip. The early ones (late 1950s–60s) have gorgeous photography and are among the most displayable Disneyland paper.
Free "Your Guide to Disneyland" handouts. The complimentary gate flyer with a map and attraction list, changing by season. Abundant in the 1970s–80s, scarcer before — and a cheap, honest way to own a dated piece of the park.
Vacationland magazine and Disney News. Periodicals rather than guides, but collected alongside; Disneyland News from the first seasons is a gem (see opening-day souvenirs).
Three guidebooks worth knowing by sight
The 1955–56 souvenir guide. Small, inexpensive, and the only guide to show the park as it opened — Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and a Tomorrowland that's half placeholder. The attraction list is short; the ambition is enormous. Finding one clean is a genuine achievement.
The 1959 "Year of the Matterhorn" edition. The park's first great expansion — Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage, the Monorail — all arrive in one summer and the guidebook swells to match. If you own one guidebook from the 1950s, many collectors would pick this one.
The 1967 New Orleans Square / Pirates edition. The park's most celebrated decade peaks: Pirates of the Caribbean opens, the new Tomorrowland debuts with the PeopleMover and Adventure Thru Inner Space, and the guidebook photography is at its lushest. A bridge between the classic and modern parks.
Collect those three and you have the arc of Disneyland's first dozen years on a single shelf.
The fun maps
The fun map — the big, colorful, slightly cartoonish bird's-eye map you could buy to hang on a bedroom wall — is the most beloved Disneyland paper of all. The icon is the 1958 map by Sam McKim, the Imagineer who drew most of the park's early souvenir maps. It shows the park as a place of wonder rather than a diagram, and it's been imitated ever since.
McKim and others revised the map repeatedly as the park grew — new editions through the 1960s add the Monorail, New Orleans Square, Pirates, the Haunted Mansion; later maps continue into the 1970s and 80s, and the park has reissued vintage-style maps ever since. Dating a fun map is a matter of reading what's on it: no New Orleans Square means pre-1966; no Space Mountain means pre-1977.
Dating, quickly
| Clue | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Lands shown/listed | New Orleans Square (1966), Bear Country (1972), Mickey's Toontown (1993) are hard boundaries |
| Headline attractions | Matterhorn/Subs/Monorail (1959), Tiki Room (1963), Small World (1966), Pirates (1967), Mansion (1969), Space Mountain (1977), Big Thunder (1979) |
| Absent attractions | Flying Saucers gone after 1966; Inner Space gone after 1985; the Skyway after 1994 |
| Price on cover | 10¢ → 25¢ → 50¢ → $1+ over the decades |
| Copyright line | "Walt Disney Productions" through 1986 |
| Cover art style | Each era has its look — learn a few and you'll date by eye |
For attraction-by-attraction detail, The E-Ticket Magazine's alphabetical index is the fastest route to the issue that covers it. And the whole run of The E-Ticket reproduces period guidebook pages and maps throughout — invaluable for learning what originals look like.
Condition and value
Guidebooks and maps were used — folded into pockets, read on the bus home, thumbtacked to walls — so condition varies wildly and drives price:
- Guidebooks: look for spine wear, loose staples, cover creases, writing, and (very commonly) a missing back cover or centerfold. A complete, tight copy with bright covers is the target.
- Fun maps: issued folds are normal — the map came folded. Extra folds, fold splits, tape repairs, pinholes from tacks, sun-fading and water stains are the deductions. A flat, bright, unpinned McKim map is a serious piece; a faded, taped one is a wall decoration (still lovely).
- Reprints: the park has reissued classic maps for decades, and reprints of early guidebooks circulate. Under a loupe, originals show offset rosettes on period stock; reprints show modern dots on bright paper, often at a slightly different size. Full method in the reissue guide.
Values: common 1970s–80s guidebooks and gate flyers are inexpensive and plentiful — a great entry point. 1950s–60s guidebooks in clean condition sell well, the earliest editions best. Original fun maps range from moderate (later, worn editions) to significant (early McKim maps in fine condition). See our grading guide for the vocabulary, and storage guide for keeping them flat and out of the sun.
Display vs. preservation
Fun maps beg to be hung, and that's how most originals got ruined. Our standard advice: frame a reissue, store the original — or if you frame an original, use UV glass, acid-free mat, and reversible hinges, and hang it away from windows. Guidebooks display beautifully in a small easel inside a glass cabinet, opened to a favorite spread, rotated periodically.
Building a collection
A natural, satisfying goal: one guidebook per era, arranged chronologically — the park grows before your eyes. Or the fun map lineage: each major revision in order. Either makes a stunning shelf and teaches you more park history than any website.
Main Street Collectibles in Martinez, Georgia keeps guidebooks, gate flyers, pictorial souvenir books and fun maps from across the decades, each sleeved and dated with the reasoning written on the tag. It's the largest Disneyana selection in the state, and the paper section is where many collectors spend the longest. Come dig.
✦ Inherited a stack of Disneyland paper? ✦
Guidebooks and maps are easy to underestimate. Send photos or bring them to 4070 Washington Rd — we'll tell you what's there and make a fair offer on the lot.
Next: Vintage Disneyland Postcards: The Nickel Tour Through Collecting