MetaFilter posts tagged with maps and cartography

"Here be Dragons"

adamvasco — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:04:18 -0800

Hadji Muhiddin Piri Ibn Hadji Mehmed, ( 1465–1554/5) was an Ottoman-Turkish Admiral, Privateer, Geographer and Cartographer more commonly known as Piri Reis. In 1521 he finished his Kitab-I Bahriye or Book of Navigation This is an exquisite C17th - C18th revised and expanded version.
( scroll down and click the icons which can then be magnified. ) Marvel at the gold leaf and coloring of the map of the Bay of Salonica or the wonderful map of Rhodes. ( click addittional information button below map to get further information.)
However Piri Reis is more famously known for this map dated 1513 which is one of the oldest surviving maps to show the Americas. In the marginalia are the accounts of the pioneer seamen who have taken part in the discovery of the places shown on the map.
Piri Reis at The Map Room and wiki and related.

Search the Bible with Google Maps

Effigy2000 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:49:53 -0800

Biblemap.org is an interactive map system for the bible, which is great for visualising where certain biblical events are said to have occured. It's also great for people who don't subscribe to any kind of organised religion but do like looking at maps (like me!).

400 Years Ago

netbros — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:41 -0800

Have you ever wondered what New York was like before it was a city? Find out at The Mannahatta Project, by navigating through the map to discover Manhattan Island and its native wildlife in 1609. “The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is to discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Envy, and Dopey

jtron — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:57:14 -0800

The seven deadly sins, mapped across the USA

Historical Maps of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Kattullus — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:45:49 -0800

Holy Land Maps and Ancient Maps of Jerusalem both showcase parts of Eran Laor Cartographic Collection. Both collectiona can be browsed by cartographer and date. Here are some of my favorite maps: 1497 perspective map of Jerusalem, Jacotin's 1818 map of Nazareth, Jordan and Acre, 1685 perspective map of Jerusalem, 1482 Ptolemy of the Middle East, 1751 map of Egypt, Arabia and the Middle East and 1928 perspective map of Jerusalem (complete with Hebrew guide). [Another part of The Eran Laor Cartographic Collection previously on MetaFilter]

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.

In mottoes we trust.

Eideteker — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:24:36 -0800

Strangemaps presents a unique map of the United Statements of America; it's a map of the USA with each state's motto (or a translation thereof) by artist Emily Wick. The strangemaps post includes an explanation of most of the mottoes below the image.

Martian maps

Wolfdog — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:20:50 -0800

Martian maps and a few others in good quality PDF.

The body of the city

Horace Rumpole — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:29:48 -0800

Visualizing Early Washington. A project at the Imaging Research Center of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County has reconstructed the original landscape of Washington DC before its radical transformation into a modern capital city. Be sure to view the animation either embedded in the WaPo story or (sans advertising) at the "reconstructed the original landscape" link. (via)

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.

The Map-Happy Chaplain

Rykey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:15:08 -0800

John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg emigrated from Germany to the United States, where he was eventually a Chaplain in the American Civil War. He also really liked maps; in the course of traveling over his lifetime, he collected hundreds of maps, some dating back to the 16th century. [Most maps in Latin]

Ryhiner maps collection

Kattullus — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:29:23 -0800

The Ryhiner Collection of maps has over 16000 images of world maps from 16th through 19th century. There are maps of every part of the world as well as sky maps, historical maps and optical views, caricatures & other drawings. All are viewable in high detail.

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.

What is not a map?

peacay — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:43:19 -0800

Ruminations on the Borderlands of Cartography, or: What is not a map? "..as far as animals with map-like blotches on them, they don't get in the tent as family, but we might consider letting them in as entertainers." [via]

Mostly blue

Artw — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:20:36 -0800

Google to map the oceans.

Kano Collection of old Japanese books and scrolls

Kattullus — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:06:05 -0800

Tohoku University's Kano Collection is an unparalleled collection of japanese books from the Edo period. The beautiful and grizzly Kaibou zonshinzu anatomical chart has been making the blogrounds lately but that's only one of the countless treasures the Kano Collection has to offer. Stumbling around near-blindly, like a non-Japanese reader such as myself, with only minimal help from the site, I have come across an amazing variety of beautiful objects, such as this picture book, a scroll with images of animals, city map, map of Japan, battle map, another picture book, the Kaitai shouzu anatomical chart and this picture scroll which has my favorite little scene I've come across in the collection. Whole days could be spent just surfing idly through the Kano Collection.

Inflicting a historical atlas on the world

Kattullus — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:14:40 -0800

Physicist Howard Wiseman has a hobby, history. On his website he has three history subsites, filled with lots of information: 1) Ruin and Conquest of Britain 2) 18 Centuries of Roman Empire 3) Twenty Centuries of "British" "Empires". Especially informative are his many maps. As he says himself: "Drawing historical maps of all sorts has been a hobby of mine since my mid teens. Now I can do it digitally, and inflict it upon the world!"

Mapping Globalization

desjardins — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:11:14 -0800

What does "globalization" look like? Princeton's searchable collection of historical maps and present-day analysis, including Artists' Travels in the Renaissance, an 1891 ethnographic chart, Telegraph Lines in 1869, Global Terrorism c. 1983, Oil reserves vs. consumption, a visualization of world development since 1960. (via)

A collection of unusual maps

Kattullus — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:33:33 -0800

A collection of unusual maps from Maps: Finding Our Place in the World by James Akerman and Robert Karrow, including slavery maps of the US from the 19th Century, maps of the voyage of the Pequod from Moby Dick and a mappe of Fairyland. All the maps are available in high resolutions with zoom functioning. [via The Edge of the American West]

Blondes have more fjords

psmealey — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:21:17 -0800

The blonde map of Europe. According to this map at least 80% of the population is fair-haired, in the central parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. So make your reservations to see the blondes now, as the BBC reports that we'll be out of blondes by 2202. Though, Snopes calls BS on this. This map, indicating the varying degrees of ‘blondness’ in Europe, shows how fair hair gets rarer further away from this core area – towards the south, as one intuitively might presume, but also towards the east, west and even towards the north. Other strange maps include: A political map of Montana Transit Map of the world's transit systems French kissing map

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.

Crafty Cartography

Rykey — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:36:04 -0800

Lost? Why not consult a map? Because, according to a past exhibit at the British Library, the mapmaker might have a political agenda.

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.

All Under Heaven

Abiezer — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:20:52 -0800

Antique Maps of China A database of 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases from the Special Collections of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library. You can browse thumbnails of maps dating back to the 15th century, then download a splendid colour PDF, for example, the 1923 map Carte des environs de Peking. There are also some world maps and ones of a few other places.

Hipkiss database of old maps

ranchocalamari — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:21:15 -0800

Do you know the way to San Jose? I found this googling for map images for an animated title sequence I am doing. Wow. A treasure trove of antique maps of every age, description and location.