Two Looks Back at the 2012 Results

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Before we’re inundated by the results from the 2016 U.S. presidential election, here are a couple of looks back at the 2012 election that explore the results from slightly different angles.

2012-by-population

This map shows the county-by-county results but the intensity is by raw vote totals, not percentages: the darker the colour, the more actual votes there are. It’s an attempt to compensate for counties of different sizes, but you still end up with distortions if the county is both large and populous. [Maptitude]

reddit-rurald-urbanr

Most Democratic strength is in the cities; most Republican strength is in rural areas. This map depicts the opposites: the urban counties won by Mitt Romney in 2012 and the rural counties where Obama won. [Maps on the Web]

Suffrage Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
"The Awakening," Puck Magazine, 20 February 1915. P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography, Cornell University Library.
Henry Mayer, “The Awakening.” Puck Magazine, 20 February 1915. P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography, Cornell University Library.

With Hillary Clinton quite possibly on the verge of being elected the first woman president of the U.S., it’s not surprising that some attention has been given to the women’s suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. The suffrage movement used maps to make the case for voting rights for women, particularly as western states began to extend the franchise to women in advance of the 19th Amendment. Yesterday Atlas Obscura posted a selection of suffrage maps from the P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography at Cornell University Library (search results). And the British Library’s Twitter account posted this suffragist flyer this morning:

The Bunting Quest

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

bunting-questAustralian writer Steven Marcuson’s novel, The Bunting Quest, uses a 1581 world map by Heinrich Bünting, and the appearance thereon of what appears to be the west coast of Australia decades before its discovery, as a plot McGuffin: “Nick Lawrance, an antique map dealer, is shocked to find his gallery has been burgled. However, this isn’t an ordinary robbery: the thieves have ignored priceless maps and have only taken Bunting’s World Map. All of a sudden, Nick is thrown into a four-hundred-year religious mystery where strange people around him will do anything for this map … even kill for it. Nick has to figure out why, before it’s too late.” Available in Australia from Hybrid Publishers and for the Kindle and iBooks worldwide. [WMS]

Mapping Swiss Mortality

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Earlier this year, a study in the Swiss Medical Weekly explored the spatial patterns of Swiss mortality rates between 2008 and 2012. The study looked at the most common causes of death and produced a number of maps. The Tages Anzeiger’s story on the study (in German) focused on only two of them—diabetes and liver disease—that produced the most dramatic regional variations: basically, people in German-speaking regions are more likely to die of diabetes, and people in French-speaking regions are more likely to die of liver disease. The newspaper’s interactive maps are nicer, too:

Maps of mortality due to diabetes (top) and liver disease (bottom) in Switzerland. Tages Anzeiger, 6 March 2016.
Maps of mortality due to diabetes (top) and liver disease (bottom) in Switzerland. Tages Anzeiger, 6 March 2016.

[Maps Mania]

Acadian Archives Exhibits Private Collection of Historic Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The Acadian Archives at the University of Maine at Fort Kent is hosting an exhibit of historic maps from the private collection of Jacques LaPointe.

The thirty-nine maps on display range widely in geography and in time. The earliest maps circa 1522-1532 are depictions of “Discovering America” according to seven cartographers of different European countries. The most recent maps reveal the United States’ claim to the “highlands” of Témiscouata and Britain’s claim to the “highlands” of Mars Hill, Maine before a compromise led to the Treaty of Webster-Ashburton of August 9, 1842 and the adoption of the St. John River as the international boundary between New Brunswick and Maine.

Bangor Daily News coverage. (Fort Kent is in northern Maine on the Canadian border, near Edmundston, New Brunswick.) [WMS]

A Map of Southeast Asia’s Future Rail Lines

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
future-se-asia
Map by James Clark

Travel blogger James Clark has created a subway-style map of southeast Asia that shows every rail line that currently exists, is under construction, or proposed.

What would Southeast Asia look like if it had a fully functioning railway network? I have thought about this many times, usually while on a bus ride from hell (Huay Xai to Luang Prabang springs to mind). […]

Over the years I’ve bookmarked news articles reporting railway lines that are under construction, or have been proposed to be built. Compiling all this data I have created a map of what Southeast Asia could look like if all of those lines were built, combined with current railways.

James warns that he’s included every proposed line, “no matter how ridiculous,” so bear that in mind. It’s also available as a poster. [CityLab]

Opening Today: British Library Exhibition on 20th-Century Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line opens today at the British Library. It runs until 1 March 2017. Admission is £12, with reduced-price and free admissions in some cases.

The Guardian’s Mark Brown and the Spectator’s Stephen Bayley have long and thoughtful pieces about the exhibition. The Independent’s Simon Calder is somewhat more solipsistic, but observes that this exhibition “might prove to be a wintry retrospective on the summer of peak cartography.”

There was also a segment on BBC Breakfast (using music from The Lord of the Rings was a bit of cognitive dissonance); the clip is available on Twitter:

The British Library’s Maps and Views blog has a sample of the maps on display.

maps-20th-drawing-line-book-coverAs you’d expect from a major exhibition like this, a companion book is out this week from the British Library. It’s available from Amazon UK in both hardcover and paperback; those of us in North America will have to wait a bit until it turns up here.

Previously: British Library Exhibition on 20th Century Maps Opening in November.

Gatineau Crime Map

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

gatineau-crime

I live 45 minutes outside the western Quebec city of Gatineau, which itself lies just across the river from Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. Yesterday Gatineau’s police service launched a crime map that shows seven categories of crime—arson, assault, break-ins, robbery, theft from a vehicle, theft of a vehicle, and vandalism. The cops are careful to stress (media release in French) that the map is for informational purposes only; the data isn’t suitable for data-crunching, and the locations aren’t precise enough to pinpoint specific buildings.

Mi’kmaw Place Names Digital Atlas

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

A guide to Mi’kmaw place names in Nova Scotia, the Mi’kmaw Place Names Digital Atlas was unveiled last year. It’s “an interactive map showing more than 700 place names throughout Nova Scotia, and includes pronunciation, etymology, and other features, such as video interviews with Mi’kmaw Elders.” Flash required (really?). [CBC News]

A Roundup of Canadian Map News

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Various items about maps and map history from here in Canada:

Last month former Canadian diplomat Dan Livermore donated his small collection of 17th- and 18th-century maps to the Brock University Library’s Special Collections and Archives, which will digitize the maps. St. Catharines Standard. [Tony Campbell/WMS]

Also last month, the Parry Sound North Star’s John Macfie came into possession of an 1886 map of the area by a local land agent, the history and provenance of which he explores in some detail. [WMS]

As the site of a major aviation base during World War II, the town of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, is surrounded by crash sites and other historical points of interest; the town and local historical groups are now mapping those sites and creating trails to them. [WMS]

Michael Layland, author of a book about the early maps and charts of Vancouver Island, writes in the Victoria Times-Colonist about his map habit and his research methods for that book. [WMS]

Canadian Maps Claim the North Pole—Canada Doesn’t

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
canada-north-pole
Canada Political Divisions (English), 2006. Natural Resources Canada.

Most maps published by the Canadian government, including the poster-sized map I have on my wall, claim a vast tract of the Arctic Ocean, all the way up to the North Pole—basically everything east of 141 degrees west longitude—as Canadian territory. The National Post’s Tristin Hopper argues that this is a mistake. Canada doesn’t even officially claim that (briskly melting) expanse of ice.

The incorrect Canadian maps are all based on the old-fashioned “sector theory” of claiming the Arctic. Back when the Arctic Ocean was largely an inaccessible chunk of ice that swallowed explorers, polar nations were generally content with dividing it up like the slices of a pizza that had the North Pole at its centre. […]

Nevertheless, while various expansionist Canadian politicians have enthusiastically touted some version of the sector theory over the years, it has never been officially adopted as Canadian policy.

It’s a position that seems to exist only on the maps produced by Natural Resources Canada. [CAG]

(I seem to have a number of other Canada-related items in my queue. Let me get to them next.)

This Map Needs a Magnifying Glass

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The Bangkok Post interviews artist Karoon Keamviriyasatean (aka Zillv). “To record the beauty of Rattanakosin Island, known simply as the ‘Old Town’, freelance artist Karoon Jeamviriyasatean has drawn a map. But it isn’t any normal map. It is a stunning and intricately detailed architectural birds-eye-view cityscape of Rattanakosin Island. Every block, shophouse, fort, temple and soi is depicted, and the only way to see it in full detail is through a magnifying glass.” The map is available for sale here. [WMS]