Uncategorised – The Map Room

Hand-drawn Map Leads Man Abducted in Childhood to Birth Mother

Published on 3 January 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

Vice: “In an attempt to locate his birth family, a man who was abducted at the age of four resorted to drawing a map of his childhood hometown from memory and posting it online. The map went viral in China, resulting in the 37-year-old reconnecting this week with his long-lost mother, whom he is set to see for the first time in 33 years on Jan. 1.” [MAPS-L]

New Exhibition of California in Maps

Published on 7 October 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

You Are Here: California Stories on the Map is an exhibition showing at the Oakland Museum of California through 2022. “Showcasing a diverse range of maps from Oakland, the Bay Area, and California—from environmental surroundings and health conditions to community perspectives and creative artworks—experience how maps can be a powerful tool to share unique points of view and imagine a better future.” San Francisco Examiner coverage. Admission is $16 or free to museum members.

Erin Davis’s Average Colours of the World

Published on 26 July 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Map: Average Colors of the World (Erin Davis) — Erin Davis

Erin Davis has created maps showing the average colour of each country of the world (plus maps showing the average colour of each U.S. state and county). She derived the average colour from Sentinel-2 natural-colour satellite imagery; she appends the process and the code to the end of her post. [My Modern Met]

A Maps Playlist

Published on 29 August 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

CityLab editor Grace McKenzie has assembled a playlist of map songs, though in some cases these songs’ relevance may be limited to the title. Forty-eight songs in all (so far). Warning: “I’m the Map!” from Dora the Explorer is included. “Longitude and Latitude” by Glazer and Evans is not.

Muse Magazine on Maps

Published on 8 May 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

Children’s science magazine Muse has dedicated almost its entire May/June 2019 issue to maps, with features on map projections (the new Equal Earth Projection is prominent), cartographers Marie Tharp and Tim Wallace, the Carta Marina, using maps in search and rescue, geocaching, and more. A lot of good stuff, accessible to young readers. The issue is not online, and not available yet via the back issues page, but it can be had via Apple News+ (which is how and where I saw it) or, presumably, on a newsstand somewhere. Subscriptions to Muse can be had via the publisher or Amazon.

The Minimal Geography Atlas

Published on 15 February 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

Our friend Alejandro Polanco’s latest project is The Minimal Geography Atlas, a collection of 40 thematic maps.

In my work as a map designer and science writer, I have collected over the past two decades hundreds of curious stories related to cartography or geography. These stories have seen the light of day in the form of hundreds of articles in magazines and blogs, as well as in posters or maps of very diverse types. Now, I’ve decided to compile my best maps and lesser-known but interesting curiosities from all that material I’ve collected over the years. The result is this book, an atlas designed to awaken your curiosity. The thematic maps that I have selected are part of the ones that I have created in the last years, improving them and adapting them for this book.

Alejandro is currently running a Kickstarter for the book. €18 gets you the digital edition, €65 the print edition (in softcover).

Previously: Alejandro Polanco’s Minimal Geography; Alejandro Polanco’s Lost Worlds.

Satellite Image Guide for Journalists and Media

Published on 15 January 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

Pierre Markuse’s Satellite Image Guide for Journalists and Media:

So you would like to use a satellite image in your article and you would like to explain it to your viewers? Here is a short guide covering some of the most frequently asked questions and giving some general explanations on satellite images. It by no means covers all aspects, as there are far too many types of satellite images, but should give you a good start to find out more on your own and maybe motivate you to create your own images, which has become quite easy and quick even with no prior knowledge of it.

Complete with examples of imagery, examples of how to use it properly, and links to resources.

Map to Globe

Published on 21 March 2018 by Jonathan Crowe

Map to Globe is an online tool that makes a globe out of any two-dimensional image. (Caitlin went for the Tabula Rogeriana.) For best (read: least distorted) results, you want to upload a 2:1 ratio map in an equirectangular projection. Some examples here.

Alejandro Polanco’s Minimal Geography

Published on 20 March 2018 by Jonathan Crowe

Our friend Alejandro Polanco has produced a nifty infographic poster map that is centred, for a change, on the Dymaxion projection. The central map is surrounded by lots of little inset maps and infographics. Called Minimal Geography, it’s available for sale via Kickstarter as a €6 digital download in two print sizes. A second reward level adds a full edition of Alejandro’s Maptorian.

Some Maine Atlas and Gazetteer Humour

Published on 26 December 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

A satirical news website based in Maine would inevitably have a bit on the venerable Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. So here’s New Maine News:

Dixmont native Don Adams’ beloved Maine Atlas and Gazetteer was unable to complete the trip from Dixmont to Eustis yesterday. […]

Outside of Solon on Route 201, the Gazetteer shuddered in Sarah’s hands before evaporating into the heated air of the Adams’ 2008 Ford F-150. The particles were “finer than baby powder,” she said.

“It made a sound like a sigh, of relief almost, and then it was gone,” Don said.

Don bought the Gazetteer in 1989 during a family trip to Bangor to go school shopping for the kids. The Gazetteer was predeceased by seven different vehicles.

The Adams were left completely without navigational tools, due to Don’s TracPhone being a simple flip-style.

[MAPS-L]

More on Patents and Cartographic Inventions

Published on 30 August 201730 August 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Earlier this year I mentioned the publication of Mark Monmonier’s latest book, Patents and Cartographic Inventions. This week at All Over the Map, Betsy Mason does a bit more than mention the book, with a closer look at some of the more unusual patents from Monmonier’s book: an early voice navigation system, a map folding method, and a rural address system. (None of which caught on, of course.)

Facebook’s Disaster Maps

Published on 7 June 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Today Facebook announced disaster maps for use by relief organizations. Based on aggregated and anonymized user data, the maps of users’ location, movement and check-ins can, Facebook says, provide relief organizations with valuable information about where the need is greatest. At launch only the Red Cross, UNICEF and the World Food Programme will have access to the data; a process will be established to determine how it will be shared with others. [Engadget]

Patents and Cartographic Inventions

Published on 25 April 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

Published late last month, Mark Monmonier’s new book, Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History (Palgrave Macmillan) is on a somewhat more arcane and non-obvious subject than his usual fare. It’s an exploration of the U.S. patent system that focuses on map- and navigation-related inventions. The publisher’s description: “In probing evolving notions of novelty, non-obviousness, and cumulative innovation, Mark Monmonier examines rural address guides, folding schemes, world map projections, diverse improvements of the terrestrial globe, mechanical route-following machines that anticipated the GPS navigator, and the early electrical you-are-here mall map, which opened the way for digital cartography and provided fodder for patent trolls, who treat the patent largely as a license to litigate.” Actually sounds interesting as hell; the book is quite expensive, though. Amazon, iBooks.

The Earth at Night, Updated

Published on 18 April 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA has released updated global maps of the Earth at night. The so-called “black marble” maps show where human activity lights up the darkness. NASA’s page highlights some of the differences between the 2016 and 2012 versions of the map with before/after interactive sliders. John Nelson has tried something different: overlaying the 2016 map on the 2012 map with a clipping mask shows newly illuminated parts of the globe as dark patches.