Alice Hudson, who from 1981 to 2009 was chief of the New York Public Library’s Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, and as such responsible for one of the world’s significant map collections, died on 6 November 2024 from complications of kidney disease. She was 77. The New York Times published her obituary yesterday.
Review: Mapmatics
The first intimation I had that maps involved mathematics was when I looked up a map projection and came face to face with the equation that generated it. Math was never my strongest subject, so it’s probably for the best that I never went into cartography. Especially since it turns out that there’s a lot more math hidden behind the maps we use on a daily basis than you might think, a point demonstrated in detail by Paulina Rowińska’s book, Mapmatics, which came out in June from Picador in the U.K. and from Belknap in the U.S. in September.
Cartographic problems are often mathematical problems: Gauss’s Remarkable Theorem demonstrates that a flat projection of a round globe must necessarily add distortion. Surveying by triangulation is simple trigonometry. The coastline paradox, whereby the length of a coastline depends on the scale at which it’s measured, is because the coastline is fractal. Real-world navigational problems can be solved via topology and graph theory, algorithms and heuristics. The takeaway from this book is these things are math, and that math is at the heart of so much of this.
Rowińska is a mathematician and science writer, and she very much approaches her subject from the math side of things. Making the subject accessible to non-mathematicians is no small challenge, especially when moving to subjects that, while absolutely part of the discipline of mathematics, don’t obviously code as such to normies. Graph theory, number theory, probability density function and topology make their appearances. (I confess to being surprised at the omission of GPS, but now that I think about it, GPS is really about timekeeping and physics.) No less a challenge is finding the balance between explaining the mathematical concepts and explaining how they apply to mapping, and doing so in a way that doesn’t completely lose the plot and turn the whole thing into a math textbook with cartographic examples.
On balance I think Rowińska mostly succeeds: there were plenty of points where the math was still esoteric to me, but I still got that, yes, this was math, and here’s what it does in these cases. As the book progresses the math gets a bit more remote from popular understanding, and the map side of things is less about maps than the data being mapped, but even then the examples are absolutely real-world and relatable (gerrymandering, disease mapping), and there are plenty of a-ha moments coming from the math behind familiar puzzles like the travelling salesman problem and the four-colour theorem.
I received an electronic review copy from the publisher.
Related: Map Books of 2024.
Mapmatics
by Paulina Rowińska
Picador, 6 Jun 2024 (UK) | Belknap, 17 Sep 2024 (US)
Amazon (Canada, UK) | Bookshop
Independent Map Sellers
Lots of little companies and individuals making and selling maps; the Independent Map Sellers page lists a bunch of them in one handy place. “Interested in buying something special for the map enthusiasts in your life (or yourself)? Skip the giant companies and go straight to the source: there are loads of skilled, independent cartographers out there whose work you can buy!” [Daniel Huffman]
The Yellowhead Treaty Map
The Yellowhead Treaty Map is an interactive map of the various treaties between the state and Indigenous peoples in Canada. “Covering every Canadian treaty from 1763 to the present, The Treaty Map aims to challenge the commonly held view of treaties as land surrenders and offers a comprehensive, interactive learning and teaching tool, grounded in Indigenous perspectives of treaties.” [Ian Mosby]
A Social Media Update
The Map Room’s Twitter account was finally deactivated on Wednesday after roughly two years of sitting idle. If the @maproomblog username is resurrected and reused, it ain’t me.
Follow The Map Room on Bluesky or Mastodon instead. Cross-posting to the Facebook page continues, though given how Meta is it’s unlikely you’ll see things there.
Mapping Pacific Island Flooding
Pacific nations like Fiji, Kiribati and Tuvalu will face at least 15 cm of sea level rise over the next 30 years, according to a NASA analysis. “In addition to the overall analysis, the agency’s sea level team produced high-resolution maps showing which areas of different Pacific Island nations will be vulnerable to high-tide flooding—otherwise known as nuisance flooding or sunny day flooding—by the 2050s. Released on Sept. 23, the maps outline flooding potential in a range of emissions scenarios, from best-case to business-as-usual to worst-case.” [Universe Today]
Newberry Library Digitizes Novacco Collection
The Newberry Library has announced that it has digitized the 754 maps comprising its Franco Novacco Map Collection, which includes Italian maps from the 16th and 17th centuries.
A large portion of the collection includes world maps of all sizes, ranging from functional to more experimental. One 1590 cordiform map, for example, places the heart-shaped world inside of a fool’s cap, resulting in an unsettling visual commentary on previous conceptions of world geography. A 1555 map, alternatively, presents the world in gores, or segmented parts, which can be cut out and pasted onto a sphere to create a globe. This blend of art, science, and history is at the heart of the Franco Novacco Collection. […]
The Newberry Library acquired the Novacco Collection from the Venetian map collector Franco Novacco himself in 1967. Since then, the maps have only been available for viewing on-site in the Newberry’s reading rooms. In early 2022, the Newberry received generous funding from Mr. Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr. and Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps to begin digitizing the entirety of the collection.
The Newberry Library is in Chicago.
‘A 50/50 US/Australia Blend’ from xkcd
Morphing maps of the U.S. and Australia into one hot mess is more of a Star Trek transporter accident than a map projection, if we’re being nitpicky; what’s surprising is that the result is almost viable. Almost.
Point Nemo
A feature article by Cullen Murphy in The Atlantic’s November 2024 issue [Apple News +] explores the oceanic pole of inaccessibility—the point on the globe furthest from any land. Known as Point Nemo, it’s at a spot in the South Pacific nearly 2,700 km from the nearest island where the weather is beyond fierce, the water so lacking in nutrients it’s a biological desert, and the closest human beings are often the astronauts in the International Space Station, which passes 250 km overhead every day. (That’s not a coincidence, by the way: Point Nemo will eventually be the ISS’s final resting place. The surrounding oceans have become a spaceship graveyard, a preferred target for controlled deorbits, precisely because they’re so far from land.)
The How and Why of Measuring Maps
Matthew Edney poses an interesting question about measuring the physical size—i.e., the length and width—of paper maps: how do we do it, and why are we doing it? “There’s a philosophical question (how do we construe this thing that we need to measure?), the question of precision (how finely do we measure?), and a pragmatic question (what use is to be made of whatever measurements are recorded?), all of which influence the selection of which part(s) of an image are to be measured. Add to that a great deal of historical inconsistency in practice, and the question becomes difficult to answer.”
Hurricane Milton
NASA Earth Observatory mapped the Gulf of Mexico’s above-average sea surface temperatures (6-7 October) and brightness temperature—“which is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures (white and purple) from the warmer surface below (yellow and orange)”—as Milton crossed Florida.
CNN maps the impact of Hurricane Milton across Florida.
Riley Walz’s Waffle House Index map: “FEMA officials informally track disaster impact by checking if Waffle House stays open. This site uses bots to check if each store is accepting online orders right now, offering a real-time view of how Hurricane Milton is affecting Florida.” [Maps Mania]
A Moving Border
Part research project, part art installation, the Italian Limes project explored a quirk about the Italian border that frankly boggles my mind a bit. Italy’s alpine frontiers with Switzerland and Austria generally follows the watershed line. Thanks to climate change and shrinking glaciers, that line has been shifting, so Italy entered into agreements with Austria (in 2006) and Switzerland (in 2009) to redefine their borders as moving borders, shifting as the watershed line changes. (This is not something I would have expected: see, for example, U.S. state boundaries remaining where the Mississippi River used to be, rather than its present course). Italy’s official maps are updated every two years. In 2014 and 2016 Italian Limes dropped solar-powered GPS sensors on the surface of a glacier to track the shifts in the border in real time; the accompanying art installations slash exhibitions allowed visitors to plot the border at that moment. A book followed in 2019. [Maps Mania]
Satellite Imagery Before Landsat
Speaking of historical satellite imagery, Bill Morris went digging for satellite imagery of what preceded Manicouagan Reservoir before it was created in the 1960s by Quebec’s massive hydro dam projects. But since Landsat first launched in 1973, after the dam was completed, what imagery was there? Answer: CIA spy satellite imagery from 1965—when satellites took pictures on film that was then sent back to Earth—that was declassified in 1996. Read more.
The Truth About Harry Beck: A Play About the Tube Map’s Creator
The Truth About Harry Beck, a play about the designer of London’s iconic Tube map, is at the London Transport Museum’s Cubic Theatre through January. Writer and director Andy Burden spent years working on the play. So far reviews have been mostly positive: Theatre Vibe’s Lizzie Loveridge found it “charming,” Everything Theatre “warm,” and Broadway World calls it “as reassuring as a comfy pair of slippers,” whereas The Arts Desk’s take is more mixed and The Standard dismisses it as “chock-full of mugging, direct address and chuntering dimwittery.” BBC News coverage.
Not coincidentally, it’s the 50th anniversary of Beck’s death. London map dealer The Map House has an exhibition to mark the anniversary: Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023. They’re a map dealer so the displays are for sale, including a draft copy of the map and one of only five remaining first-edition Tube map posters. Runs from 25 October to 30 November, free admission.
Some Google Maps Updates
Google Maps imagery updates include improved satellite imagery thanks to an AI model that removes clouds, shadows and haze, plus “one of the biggest updates to Street View yet, with new imagery in almost 80 countries—some of which will have Street View imagery for the very first time.” The web version of Google Earth will be updated with access to more historical imagery and better project and file organization, plus a new abstract basemap layer. [PetaPixel]
Meanwhile, The Verge reports that Google Maps is cracking down on business pages that violate its policy against fake ratings and reviews.