Saul Steinberg’s Cartography

Saul Steinberg, “The View from 9th Avenue,” cover for The New Yorker, 29 March 1976.

It’s likely that artist Saul Steinberg may be best known for “View of the World from 9th Avenue,” an illustration that appeared as the well-known cover of the 29 March 1976 issue of The New Yorker. But as an essay on the Saul Steinberg Foundation website argues, “Isolating View of the World from the rest of his oeuvre, you miss its larger significance: as one work within a parade of images that harness the graphic device of the map to visualize more than geography. The map for Steinberg is not a system of geographic measurement but a way of thinking.” The post has lots of other examples of Steinberg’s work where he plays with maps and place, providing some context for that famous cover. [Robert Simmon]

Previously: McCutcheon’s View.

The Osher Map Library’s 2025 Illustrated Mapmaking Contest for Maine Elementary Students

The Osher Map Library’s illustrated mapmaking contest for elementary school students has been a thing since 2016. For the 2025 contest, some 350 entries from Maine fourth, fifth and sixth graders were received. They’ve been narrowed down to twelve finalists; the winners, who get prizes, will be determined by public vote—which ends tomorrow, so go have a look.