Here Comes the Flood II

Using data from NASA, here is a Google map tool that allows you to speculate on possible consequences of global warming and rising sea levels.

Below is Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay area under an additional 10 meters of water.






Here Comes the Flood I

How the States Got Their Shapes

How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein. I read this book several months ago, and have been meaning to mention it here....

Each of the 51 chapters (it also includes the District of Columbia) discusses some history of each state, focusing primarily on the decisions that were made by kings, settlers and Congress when drawing borders around states.

This book answers some burning questions:

• Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania


• Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan


• Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii


• Why Texas and California are so out sized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size


• Was Delaware really necessary?

Stein tells the stories of these states with humor. My favorite is the sad story of Maryland, and how they LOST every single border dispute over history (just look at it... a very unnaturally shaped state.):



As a resident of Ohio, I was particularly interested in the story of Connecticut and their claim to lands in the West. Like many of the original thirteen colonies, they claimed land stretching all the way to the Pacific. In most cases, it wasn't that they truly expected to govern that land, but they wanted the right to sell the acreage to settlers. Eventually they were obliged to relinquish they claim to half of Pennsylvania, and much of the territory in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois as Congress organized that area as part of the Northwest Ordinance:



However, Connecticut reserved the right to sell the land in what is now northeast Ohio. It was their "Western Reserve." I had often wondered where the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland got their name.



My only criticism is the author's arrangement of the chapters. He chose to put the states in alphabetical order, which is fine if you are not reading the whole thing straight through, but want to find and refer to specific states. I would have preferred that he arranged them by regions. So many of the states have common histories of their borders (such as the 49th parallel and the Mason-Dixon Line). If arranged thematically, many of the chapters would not have needed to be so repetitive. Still, this book is a must for map and geography buffs.

#280

Festival of Maps Are Here, Hon.

Following the successful Festival of Maps in Chicago, the City of Baltimore will host a Festival of Maps March 16 through June 30, 2008. The exhibit at The Walters Art Museum includes this map of Virginia that includes modern day Maryland:


Virginia, in A Map of Virginia: With a Description of the Country, the Commodities, People, Government, and Religion
by John Smith
1612; printed map
Newberry Library, Chicago (Gift of Edward E. Ayers)
British settler John Smith laid the colonial foundation with the publication of this 1612 map of Virginia.

"The Baltimore Festival of Maps is a citywide celebration organized by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance to encourage Baltimore residents and visitors to explore museums, theaters, galleries and educational institutions." I wish I could be there.

You Are Here, Hon. is a blog by an enthusiastic map fan in Baltimore. She calls herself "Her Majesty of Maps. Just a local gal who has lots of attitude about latitude and who knows a thing or two about the map frenzy sweeping Charm City," She appears to be having a lot of fun posting maps from the exhibit, as well as oddball maps she finds along the way.

And here's something else I learned today: one of the nicknames for Baltimore is, "The Charm City." I'll buy that. I have visited the city many times and it has never been unpleasant. I love the Inner Harbor, the National Aquarium, and my favorite art museum in the world (sorry Walters), the American Visionary Art Museum.