A century ago, the US electric power industry was well on its way to providing service to every building in every town and city. But even as late as 1936, more than 90% of American farms still lacked electricity.

The magazine Literary Digest published a fascinating cartogram illustrating this disparity in 1921, with US states depicted according to their respective electricity consumption. New York is, not surprisingly, massive, followed by Pennsylvania and then California. By contrast, the rural South is tiny, and states like the Dakotas, New Mexico and Wyoming are practically invisible. In the South in particular, there was a distinct mismatch between state population and electricity consumption: Mississippi ranked 23rd in population in 1920 but 44th in electricity sales.

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