Aaron Burr for President Leads to a Balanced Italy

Oh, the fun we have finding things while looking for something else...

Recently, Mrs. Cartophiliac returned from a trip to Phoenix to visit an old friend. She posted several photos from her trip on Flickr, including several from this art installation, "Monument to the Unelected".



But wait! says the history geek cartophile, shouldn't this sign...

look like this?

I decided to assume the artist was being ironic or something like that...

So, who is this artist? I wondered. A bit of Googling revealed Nina Katchadourian as the culprit. Wait, I know that name... Of course! Last year I highlighted her piece of map art, Coastal Merger

A visit to her website reveals many other examples of her carto-art, including this piece from a series entitled, Geographic Pathologies

But this reminds me of yet another map...

Chromatic Diplomacy, a variant of the classic boardgame, Diplomacy. Chromatic is five-player variant but on a symmetrical map in an attempt to make it geographically balanced.



Serendipity.

Ties for Christmas

Cartophiliac's family knows what he likes to find under his Christmas tree: Maps!

Wearable maps from Mrs. Cartophiliac and Miss Princess Cartophiliac:



A world map and the Battle of Waterloo. Cool!

For those of you that celebrate `em, I hope you all have/had Happy Holidays and a very Merry Cartigraphic Christmas!

Maps of War: March of Democracy

Maps of War: The Visual History of War, Religion and Government offers Flash animated maps to help users understand historical and current events. The latest addition to the site is March of Democracy, charting the ebb and flow of democratic ideals through history and across the map of the world:

Where has democracy dominated and where has it retreated? This map gives us a visual ballet of democracy's march across history as the most popular form of government. From the first ancient republics to the rise of self-governing nations, see the history of democracy: 4,000 years in 90 seconds...!

Other maps include:

History of Religion: How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries? and Imperial History: Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history?

Memorial Day

Monday, May 6, is Memorial Day in the United States. While many see it only as a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summertime fun, it remains a day to commemorate the men and women who have died in military service to their country. Known originally as Decoration Day, the day has been commemorated annually since the end of the American Civil War.

Here are two map postcards depicting scenes from that war:



Randy Green created the card above, depicting a "somber yet magnificent overview of the key states involved and the heroic figures who emerged from this tragic yet ultimately liberating and unifying conflict." A full sized poster or jigsaw puzzle of this card is available from White Mountain Puzzles.

The postcard below was sent to me by a friend many years ago. I especially like this one because, while you cannot see the detail, it does include a map. The original painting, The Last Council at Chancellorsville, by Mort Künstler, depicts Generals Jackson, Lee and Stuart. The Battle of Chancellorsville was one of Lee's greatest victories on the field, but he lost his "right arm" when General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson was mortally wounded.

Story of a Cartophiliac

I have loved maps for as long as I can remember.

My father had a nice collection of atlases and a World Book Encyclopedia. I can remember spreading them out across the living room floor, studying them for hours. The World Book had multiple maps for each continent, showing flora, fauna a minerals of each continent, in addition to the topographical and political boundaries maps. He had world atlases, American atlases and historical atlases. The historical atlases were fascinating; to see the development of nations progress from page to page.

I made my own maps. I drew a map of my neighborhood in order to chart out the most efficient path for Halloween Trick-or-treating. I made up my own maps of Europe and Asia to imagine how Alexander's empire might have grown and developed if he hadn't died so young. Before I understood what global warming was, I drew a map of the United States after sea levels had risen, covering most of Florida, and forcing the capital to move from Washington, DC, to Columbus, Ohio...

In junior high school, a buddy and I, inspired by J.R.R. Tokien and other fantasy authors, created our own imaginary worlds. First they were the "ant countries" in our back yards. Later, realms of pure imagination with not only maps, but histories, flags, currency, and newspapers. In college, when I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, I had a ready-made fantasy world in which to place the adventures when I became a Dungeon Master.

While I have pretty much stopped drawing my own maps (short of a doodle here and there) I have continued to collect them. Postcards, stamps, coffee mugs, posters, etc. But one day while perusing an information professional journal of one sort or another, I came across this ad:

What a clever idea! To use a road map as the cover of one of those old (not so old then) 5.25 inch floppy disks! The purpose of the map not to show a route, or how to find the store, but to invoke a feeling of adventure or the freedom of the road. Like any good advertising, it evokes an emotional result. I was so fascinated by this idea that I began looking for more like it.

In the entries that follow this one I will share other ads with "map as design element", as well as postcards, stamps and other odds and ends of map emphemera. I hope you enjoy it, or at least find it mildly amusing. If so, please share your comments, or links to other interseting map memorabilia online.

Who am I?

I am a librarian at the Main Branch of medium-sized city public library somewhere in the midwest. My big hobby, besides maps, is boardgaming. At some point, I have no doubt that I will blog about maps in boardgames. If you really need to know who I am, or get in touch with me, see contact info.