Theme Park Maps showcases those hand-drawn brochures that showed where the roller coasters and bumper cars were at your favorite theme park.
posted by Wild_Eep on Nov 11, 2009 - 24 comments

Leah Evans is a textile artist who maps imaginary worlds in her quilts.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Jan 1, 2009 - 14 comments

The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae A collection of over 900 zoomable print engravings, organized around the work of Antonio Lafreri and other Italian publishers, whose documentation of Roman ruins and statues helped fuel the Renaissance. The itineraries are a good place to start for detailed discussion, or just browse away. [via the wonderful Bouphonia]
posted by mediareport on Dec 10, 2007 - 8 comments

Map Paintings by Paula Scher: “These are absolutely, one hundred percent inaccurate,” Paula Scher declares of her colossal map paintings. Then, after a pause: “But not on purpose.” Another pause: they’re actually “sort of right.” [via]
posted by dhruva on Nov 12, 2007 - 10 comments

Canada at scale: Exploration, colonization and development. And a pop-up menu. Go, eh!
posted by St Urbain's Horseman on Sep 25, 2007 - 30 comments

Bugaboo Daytrips is a gorgeous site featuring 22 strollable daytrips in major cities worldwide (not just US Only), all laid out on beautiful artistic (yet still helpful) maps with downloadable PDFs for taking with you on your wanderings. For those terrified of being marketed to, it should be noted that Bugaboo is a baby stroller company, although the site is by no means of restricted interest to parents only, and bugbaoo's presence on the site seems confined to the URL. Also note that unfortunately for those alergic to it, the site is designed entirely in Flash. On the other hand, the maps & art are really awesome, so you should do yourself a favor & get over it this time. Via.
posted by jonson on Jun 26, 2007 - 16 comments

"First of all, it's a map; second, it's a piece of art." Look closely at the corner of a North American ski resort trail map and you will probably see James Niehues' name tucked away in the trees. Examples of his work include Alta, Snow Basin, Winter Park, Killington and Vail.
posted by mmascolino on Apr 28, 2007 - 17 comments

Civil War Posters, Soviet Children's Books, 19th Century Shipping Posters, and much, much more are all part of this Flickr user's amazing collection of printed ephemera.
posted by jonson on Mar 31, 2007 - 13 comments

Here are three artists who use maps in their art: Mathew Cusick makes collages of old maps, Layla Curtis makes collages of current maps (flash; click on works, collages) and Susan Stockwell makes maps out of, well, just about anything.
posted by dhruva on Jan 24, 2007 - 14 comments

"Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen. She works with obsessive perserverance to create constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs." Samples here. {via design dna}
posted by dobbs on Jan 16, 2007 - 18 comments

Das Projekt "Map"
posted by Tlogmer on Dec 1, 2006 - 18 comments

The U.S. Naval Observatory Library features high-res scans of images from antique books dealing with astronomy and navigation. Wallpapers, ahoy!
posted by Gator on Jul 13, 2006 - 18 comments

Matthew White's Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. One of those amazing internet reference sites created by some guy (okay, Matthew White). Lots of fascinating, incredibly researched stuff: complete lists of all manmade megadeaths in the 20th century, the 100 most important works of art of the 20th century, maps showing changes in the types of government by decade, comments on Wikipedia, and much more. Also, some fun stuff, like what the US would look like if every secessionist movement succeeded. Previously posted in 2001, but much updated and worth a second look
posted by blahblahblah on Jun 2, 2005 - 15 comments

Historic cities - images and maps. [via monkeyfilter]

Also - historic maps of the UK, and many more. Map overload may occur.

posted by jb on Sep 29, 2004 - 8 comments

Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.)
posted by Vidiot on Mar 19, 2003 - 10 comments

Celestial Atlases are perhaps some of the most beautiful scientific books ever published, capturing the mystery and the grandeur of the heavens, and rife with beautiful and often intimidating interpretations of the constellations. Out Of This World has been my favorite website since the dawning of time, and one I go back to over and over again even though it never changes. The period from 1603 to 1801 produced the most beautiful star maps, and you don't have to know a thing about astronomy to appreciate how heavenly these are.
posted by iconomy on Sep 10, 2002 - 9 comments