“The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Known also as bird’s-eye views, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective.” (Thanks The Map Room)
The Use of Maps in Contemporary Art
“Recently artists have become increasingly interested in maps… This study examines the use of maps in art, looks at why there has been an increase in artists interest in the use of maps, and what use they make of maps. This will be put into context by looking at a brief history of the development of maps and the ways maps are used today and the meanings they have accrued.”
Making Tracks
“Richard Carpenter is mapping every mile of America’s railroad system as of 1946. By hand. ‘It’s a story,’ he says, ‘that needs to be told.’ …What Dick Carpenter has engineered is A Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946 , an encyclopedic work that is as audacious as it is artful. Carpenter aims to draw every mile of railroad track that existed in the United States in 1946. Volume one, published last summer, covers six mid-Atlantic states and more than 23,570 miles of active track. All of which raises a small question and a big one: Why 1946? And why at all?”
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The Dynamap
“We certainly don’t mention enough low-tech gadgets on the site, but here’s one we’ve found that’s worth mentioning: the new Dynamap of Manhattan, which, using interlaced images, manages to put three different maps of Manhattan ó a street map, a subway map, and one showing landmarks and neighborhoods ó all onto the same surface. Tilt it to one side and you see the street map, tilt it another way and you see the subway map, etc. Useful for tourists, no doubt, but even New Yorkers will find it helpful to have a map that can easily show you the exact street intersections of subway stops.”
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Lewis and Clark: Maps of Exploration 1507-1814
“Thomas Jeffersonís intellectual curiosity drew him into an accelerating, three-hundred-year-old quest to find a water route to Asia. To understand Jeffersonís views of the West and the nature of the quest to the Pacific, the University of Virginia Library and the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation have put together an exhibition and book of maps and journals. Lewis and Clark: The Maps of Exploration 1507-1814 examines the planning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the cartographic tradition that made the expedition possible. The exhibition shows the evolving views of the American continent and the ‘Passage to the Indies’ as they appear in maps up to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”
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Logarithmic Maps of the Universe
From /.: “NY Times today has an essay about a map of the entire universe produced by two Princeton astronomers using a variety of data including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Its view begins with the Earth at the bottom and extends back almost to the Big Bang at the top, including such objects as the Sloan Great Wall, 1.37 billion light-years long.”
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History of the Tube map
“The striking symbol that is recognised across the globe was the brainchild of Underground electrical draughtsman, Harry Beck, who produced this imaginative yet stunningly simple design back in 1933. Beck based the map on the circuit diagrams he drew for his day job, stripping the sprawling Tube network down to basics.”
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The 3d Tube Map
“The London Underground map is copyright of Transport for London. I’m not making any money from this so don’t sue me. Please. It’s taken me since March (mostly because I’ve not had long periods of not working on it) and this is the third and final version but finally it’s finished. There’s no deep artistic meaning…I just fancied a go at it and its probably not 100% accurate but I had limited information to go on plus my own sparse knowledge of the tube.”
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Ancient World Mapping Center
“The Ancient World Mapping Center exists to promote cartography and geographic information science as essential disciplines within the field of ancient studies. The staff and affiliates of the Center work to advance the study of the ancient world through innovative and collaborative research, teaching, and community outreach activities using cartography, geographic information science, and historical geography.”
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The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps
And that’s exactly what it is. “mcwetboy.net is a place where Jonathan Crowe puts projects of his that are independent and impersonal enough to warrant a separate identity from his personal site at mcwetboy.com.”
