Maps on Stamps

When I started this blog, nearly two years ago, my intention was to highlight my own scattered collections of map memorabilia. In fact, I have scanned many map postcards from my collection, as well as shirts, mugs, Christmas ornaments, advertising, etc. However, the one thing I haven't covered yet, in spite of being the first thing mentioned in my masthead, is stamps. I have a small collection (compared to serious stamp collectors) of stamps featuring maps. Unfortunately, I have not got around to scanning them.

However, this morning, while searching for something else (a simple way to compare the area of states and countries) I came across this image of a Mexican stamp, issued in 1977, to mark the resumption of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Spain:



On his website, Dan of Dan's Topical Stamps, points out that here is a difference in scale between Mexico and Spain. If Mexico were drawn to the same scale as Spain, it would be about four times larger. While it might have been a geographically correct stamp, it might not have been politically correct, nor as aesthetically pleasing.

While browsing through Dan's Topical Stamps, I found several other interesting map stamps.

Here is a drawing of Gandhi caricatured as India:



A Dutch stamp with a Frisian cow whose spots are maps of European countries, including the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy:



The first postal map stamp issued by the United States was issued in 1904 to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase:



Hopefully in the next few months I'll get around to sharing some of my own map stamps.

Power Grid

My latest boardgame aquisition is Power Grid. As eurogames go, this one is middle-range in complexity. Success requires analysis and planning. I have played this game for several years, and a few weeks ago, I actually won for the first time! So I decided it was time I owned a copy.

The object of this game is to supply the most cities with power. To accomplish this goal players purchase power plants and the raw materials needed to run the plants. These materials include coal, oil, garbage, and uranium, but also includes wind and solar-powered plants. The winner of the game will create the most efficient network of plants powering the most cities. The base game comes with a map of the United States on one side:



and a map of Germany on the other:



Official game expansions include Italy, France and the Benelux countries:



However, many enterprising Power Grid fans have created their own maps, allowing them to play in Scandinavia:








...and Connecticut



As it often happens, I found something cool while looking for something else. GameInk.net is offering Power Grid (and other boardgame) themed T-shirts:



Power plant #44 in the game deck is one of the most desirable in the set, as it powers up to five cities, but because it uses solar and wind power, you do not need to purchase resources to burn.

"Money isn't everything, but it is a tie-breaker in Power Grid"

Game board images from BoardGameGeek.com

#227

Vermeer's Hat

The "glowing" painting by Johannes Vermeer, "Officer and Laughing Girl", is featured on the cover of this new book: Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook.

At the intersection between World History and Art History, this book examines the work of Vermeer, while focusing on the things that appear in Vermeer's paintings: beaver hats from the New World, porcelain from China, and Turkish rugs. Brook discusses how the "urge to acquire the goods of distant lands was refashioning the world more powerfully than we have yet understood."

Featured in the background of the painting is a Willem Blaeu print of a map of Holland and West Friesland, by mapmaker Balthasar van Berckenrode.