MetaFilter posts tagged with cartography and map

Powhatan's map of Virginia

Kattullus — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:36:05 -0800

Powhatan's Mantle was the emblem of kingship worn by Wahunsenacawh, also known as Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas. A deerskin cloak ornamented with shell beadwork, it may at first appear to be only clothing but in fact it is also a map of the Powhatan Confederacy, which ruled most of eastern Virginia when the English first settled there. The mantle was acquired by one of the John Tradescants whose collection was the foundation of Oxford University's Ashmolean Collection and the mantle resides there still today. The first linked article is a fascination article about the mantle as well as a gallery of images of and related to Powhatan's Mantle.

World Mapper

y2karl — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:21:45 -0800

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. There are now nearly 600 maps.

Worldmapper

I have a boot in my eye! And I am shaped like a boot! To boot!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:39:04 -0800

Satirical maps of Europe from 1914-15.

Spertus Museum pulls plug on controversial map exhibit

hydrophonic — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:08:28 -0800

The Spertus Museum/Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies has just canceled Imaginary Coordinates due to complaints that some of the artwork (NSFW: nudity, disturbing imagery) in the exhibit had an anti-Israeli slant. This comes less than a year after the opening of their much-heralded new building. The show, which was part of Festival of Maps Chicago, was first shut down a few weeks after it opened in May, then retooled and reopened with limited access by guided tour only. Spertus has purged information about the exhibit from their website, but you can still catch a video tour produced by the museum (exhibit tour starts at about 1:40).

Amazing map exhibition

LobsterMitten — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:48:27 -0800

Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen. The show includes: maps made by Davinci, Geo Washington, Thos Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Cortes, and others; the first geologic map; the 1982 first map of ARPAnet, a map of the distribution of whales in the Atlantic in the late 1700s commissioned by Ben Franklin; a Marshall islands stick map; a carved nubbly chunk of wood carved into a map of the coast of Greenland; maps sewn onto silk by medieval Mediterranean sailors; Japanese, Indian, medieval European pilgrimage maps; maps made by indigenous people on every inhabited continent; the first relief map; the chart Charles Lindbergh used on his transAtlantic flight; the map that settled the boundary of the US at the surrender at Yorktown; Lewis and Clark's map; the map that historians think is the oldest city map, on a clay tablet from Sumeria; demographic and experimental maps from the social consciousness movements of the late 19th c; the Minard map of Napoleon's Russian campaign (so praised by Edward Tufte); the first Mercator projection map; maps of fictional places made by Tolkien, Frank Baum, and others; and on and on. The show includes images from the Hubble telescope and local artists' alternative mappings of Baltimore, too. If you are interested in maps, history, or information design at all you should try to see this show; it is just breathtaking. The exhibit was organized by the Field Museum in Chicago, and was shown there first. I don't know if it's going to visit other cities; I believe I read something suggesting it wasn't, but I can't find confirmation of that now.

Polyhedral Maps

Tube — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:33:53 -0800

Polyhedral Maps is a website that explores unconventional methods of mapping the surface of the earth. The most famous of these unusual maps was Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map, which used the net of an icosahedron. Da Vinci had experimented with this technique in his “Octant” map of 1514, which used Reuleaux triangles as map elements. This process is now being used by photographers and artists in manipulating panoramic images. A good example is Tom Lechner’s The Wild Highways of the Elongated Pentagonal Orthobicupola.

asleep at light speed

plexi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:47:36 -0800

Google Sky we'll help us find our way, someday.

Are we there yet?

mattoxic — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:02:13 -0800

The Gough, or Bodleian map is surprisingly accurate considering it dates from the 14th century. The Map is considered the first true map of Britain. Some say the red lines cris-crossing the map are roads, however, some disagree. You be the judge, because the map is available for interractive viewing at Queens University Belfast.

Kadath in the Cold Waste

Artw — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:13:02 -0800

Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica UK and US researchers peice together the most detailed map of Antarctica yet, searching through years of data to find cloud free images.

where

nickyskye — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:48:36 -0800

Maps new and old. Music maps - Find out who is listening to what and where l Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun? l Subway maps on five continents l Free printable world map and blank maps l Free Clustr Maps - Locate all site visitors. l Index of some users of WorldKit - Easy web mapping (including the excellent and previously mentioned, RSOE HAVARIA Emergency and Disaster Information Service) l Number of Inhabitants Per Doctor around the world l And some beautiful antique, old and vintage maps, such as this one of the names of the Mediterranean winds in five languages. Map links previously posted in MetaFilter.

Mapping Canada

St Urbain's Horseman — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:22:05 -0800

Canada at scale: Exploration, colonization and development. And a pop-up menu. Go, eh!

All browsers spy on Rome

Gyan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:22:19 -0800

Wiki City Rome - "anyone with an Internet connection will be able to see a unique map of the Italian capital that shows the movements of crowds, event locations, the whereabouts of well-known Roman personalities, and the real-time position of city buses and trains."

Where is Jim Gray?

BLDGBLOG — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:37:15 -0800

Wired presents an extraordinary look at "one of the most ambitious search-and-rescue missions in history," after one of Microsoft's researchers, Jim Gray, and his boat, the Tenacious, went missing in the Pacific Ocean outside San Francisco in January 2007. Cartography meets law meets 2.0 technology. "First the Coast Guard scoured 132,000 square miles of ocean. Then a team of scientists and Silicon Valley power players turned the eyes of the global network onto the Pacific." Eventually, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, the US Navy, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium jumped in – "as did astronomers from leading universities." To this day, Jim Gray has never been found, and his disappearance cannot be explained. Read Wired for more.

There may be maps for these territories.

myopicman — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:42:29 -0800

Strange maps: the start of a collection of curious cartography found online, be they historic, quirky, practical or fictional.

Fantastical Cartography

Tlogmer — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:21:06 -0800

Manhattan Goes Travelling

MapQuest demystified

stbalbach — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 10:17:05 -0800

"Getting There." MapQuest demystified from The New Yorker.

Web codes, world-wide

hydrophonic — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:57:43 -0800

More map fun: The first world map of internet country codes. Large jpg here.

The Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography

carter — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:33:05 -0800

The Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography Maps, mappers, and the history of mapping, with slide shows, online exhibitions (e.g. The French Empire in North America, popular cartography), and journal articles. Part of the Newberry Library, Chicago.

Open Street Map

vacapinta — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:49:57 -0800

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world, using uploaded GPS traces. So far: London and several other cities have been mapped. (via dataisnature)

The Map Room

silusGROK — Wed, 09 Jul 2003 08:42:05 -0800

Finally... something good has come from a newsfilter post! In a trackback to a recent post on something-or-other (aren't they all the same?) I discovered a gem of a site dedicated to maps.

Maxor — Wed, 16 Oct 2002 10:39:38 -0800

Map-making for fun and profit! How would you like to be born on Buttlickin Ave? Is this for real? Or Someone messing with yahoo's map software? Inquiring minds want to know!

tranquileye — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 18:25:08 -0800

There are several sites that present maps of the Internet: geographic, technical, and historical. And now, you can hang one on your wall.

tatochip — Tue, 08 May 2001 15:40:53 -0800

The World [Map] According to America Quite funny indeed...