New New and News Maps on Magazines

Magazine cover designers never disappoint me. I can always count on a map or two every month. This month I present magazines with the word "New" or "News" in their title. How about that?

The New Republic August 13, 2008 Cover story: Trading Places by Alan Ehrenhalt The demographic inversion of the American city. The tiny image here does not do the cover justice, but it depicts the new "heart" of cities that are revitalizing, in the style of a transit map.

Two maps from the New Scientist magazine in one month! First, August 6, 2008, another transit map is used to illustrate the story by Mark Buchanan on Why complex systems do better without us

The August 20, 2008, issue fills a water balloon globe to illustrate: Looming water crisis simply a management problem, by Jonathan Chenoweth For another cover on this theme, see Squeezing out the last drops, my magazine post from earlier this month.

Finally, the September 2008 issue of ARTnews uses a map tatoo of China to introduce us to China's Art Market Boom by Barbara Pollack

I'm a Fan of Maps

Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, at the Field Museum, Chicago
November 2, 2007 — January 27, 2008
Part of The Festival of Maps Chicago

China, Korea and Japan
Da Qing yitong er san sheng yudi quantu (Complete Map of the 23 Provinces of the Great Qing Dynasty)
Unidentified mapmaker, Chinese
1890
Printed map on fan

This fan is a clever solution to the problem of map portability. Such folding fans were an important part of the ceremonial dress of East Asian aristocrats and courtiers. The earliest examples with maps date from 16th century Japan.

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

Never get lost in the orient again!

Tuck's Russo-Japanese War Map

One of my favorite map related blogs, Strange Maps, posted today about three postcards related to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. It inspired me to find the vintage Russo-Japanese War postcard from my own collection:



I recall picking this up at a paper collector's show in Columbus. On the back:

Raphael Tuck & Sons' Post Card Series No. 1355 "Russo-Japanese War"
ART PUBLISHERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING & QUEEN

No date on the card, but it appears to have been published during or soon after the war...