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The population of the country was about 3.5 million and the area was 816,000 square miles

Maine was part of Massachusetts

What is now Kentucky was part of Virginia. What is now Tennessee was part of North Carolina. What is now Mississippi and Alabama was part of Georgia.  What is now coastal Mississippi and Alabama was part of Louisiana.  The Florida panhandle was much shorter.

What is now Tennessee was part of North Carolina

What is now coastal Mississippi and Alabama was part of Louisiana

What is now Mississippi and Alabama was part of Georgia

Much of the west was Spanish America. The northwest was "Claimed by England."

The northwest was "Claimed by England"

George Washington, running as a Federalist, won the unanimous vote of all TEN states as "Rhode Island, New York and North Carolina, not being qualified, did not vote." They were the 11th, 12th and 13th states admitted to the union.

By 1840, the population was 17.1 million and the area was 1.8 million square miles.

States east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of West Virginia, are as we now know them. However, two of them did not become States until afterwards: Florida (1845) and Wisconsin (1848). I'm not sure why one can't determine that from the 1840 map.

Texas was its own republic from 1836 to 1849

What is now Iowa, Minnesota and parts of Nebraska, North and South Dakota was listed as "Iowa." Just west of Iowa was "Indian Country."

Just west of "Iowa" was "Indian Country"

Further west was under "Mexico" where "A state of anarchy prevails"

Population pursuant to the 1870 census was 38.6 million and the area was 3.6 million square miles.

The Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869 and is shown.

The continental states as we now know them are shown with the exception of Oklahoma ("Indian Country" and "Unorganized Territory" (panhandle)). However, many of them did not become States until later. The Dakotas have yet to become North and South Dakota.

The Dakotas have yet to become North and South Dakota

Nationality of Immigrants from 1820 to 1870

No land reclaimed yet

The Marina Bay Sands would be approximately at this location on this map.

Government House

Far and secluded from the hubbub of the city. Still extant, known as the Istana.

Raffles Field

Recreational field for commoners. Also used as cricket grounds. Known today as Padang.

Chinese Protectorate

Built artifact of strong Chinese presence in Singapore. Now demolished.

The Fullerton Hotel

Former General Post Office. One of many examples of Singapore's colonial architecture repurposed post-independence.

South Bridge Road

Singapore's streets were (and still are) lined with shophouses, built in Sino-Portuguese style.

Singapore River, Fort Canning

The river was the epicenter of Singapore's heyday. The city also had a large military infrastructure.

This is an example of a portolan map with evidence of only coastal cities included, which suggests the purpose of the map was to inform the owner of the map how to get from point A to point B.

Rhumb lines also provide evidence that this map was created to help sailors travel across the ocean.

Here we can see the map maker, Guillaume Brouscon has labelled his home city of Brest, France with large red font.

Decorative border and elegant map style aligns with the purpose of many Dieppe maps, which were commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Kings Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England. These maps were likely not taken on sea voyages or used for navigation purposes.

This is an example of a Dieppe map, produced at The Dieppe school of cartographers in Dieppe, France. This specific map is a world map by Guillaume Brouscon in 1543.

(S of QLSEDI) - It has been assumed that Portuguese cartographers were bribed for information of the latest discoveries, despite the official Portuguese ‘Politica de sigilo’ (‘policy of silence’) (Wikipedia). Many Dieppe maps have Portuguese words, despite the school being located in France, which has led researchers to attribute this inconsistency to the use of secondary Portuguese sources.

Here we can see the word Terre Ostrale elegantly displayed on this Southeast landmass. This is an iteration of the proposed supercontinent in the South that was theorized to balance out the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

I picked this map because of its elegance, which instantly caught my eye, and after further examination, the clear innacuracies of the map became very intriguing.

This map's creation in 1543 post dates Waldseemüller’s 1507 "Map of the World" which was the first time the American landmass was included as a separate continent. With this being a world map, it draws on Waldseemüller’s prior work, but seems to have a significantly more developed understanding of the American continent. The extensive inclusion of coastal cities suggests that Brouscon was much more fascinated by the New World than Asia and Africa which feature less port city names.

QLSEDI - E: Evidence of estimation with the East of North America drawn in detail with documentation from European voyages across the Atlantic, but the Western border trails off, suggesting less certainty involving that area of the border.

This estimation/speculation is actually more accurate than later attempts to draw the Western border, which suggest that California is an island until the mid 18th century.

While this map's creator does not believe that Terra Australis connects to land South of South America, some researchers believe that this Westward extension of the continent is a misplacement of the Jave la Grande because of unclear depictions of South America on the Norman maps that Dieppe mapmakers consulted.

The central cartouche features the Mayflower, the ship which brought the Pilgrims to North America. The Mayflower landed in what is now Plymouth, MA in 1620.

This map features various maritime-related historical locations, such as this one which marks the "First Encounter" between the Pilgrims and the indigenous people of Cape Cod.

Waugh was a resident of Provincetown at the time he created this map, which might explain why Provincetown has a greater amount of detail than other towns on the map. It is unclear whether the tall structure represented here is intended to be the Pilgrim Monument. If so, it is slightly architecturally inaccurate.

This map features the Cape Cod Canal, which had only existed for ~15 years at the time that this map was created.

The borders of this decorative map feature illustrations of famous ships related to Cape Cod.

This map is intended to provide an historical depiction of Cape Cod, a depiction which might have been common a century or two earlier. For this reason, it includes illustrations of Poseidon, sea monsters, and even portrays the indigenous people as "remorseless savages."

Mercator projection --> preserves parallel meridians --> rhumb lines

Red dots on the map refer to China's provincial capitals, and based on a translation found on Wikimedia, the text in each province refers to the name of the capital, not the province itself. These would have been of particular importance to magistrates under the Qing. 

The capital city at Beijing is represented farther from the sea than it is in real life; in fact, the map enlarges the provinces around the capital, possibly reflecting their importance to the Qing government and/or the map's creator.

Beijing (red)'s location in modern China, much closer to the sea. From Wikimedia Commons.

Where most provincial borders are marked with dotted lines, here, the border between the former Ming Dynasty and Manchuria (the land of the Qing conquerors) is a solid line, with the characters here referring to Shanhai Pass, the gap in the old Ming Dynasty's border defenses against the Manchus. The cartographer may have also included Shanhai Pass as an indication of the ethnic divide between the Han Ming and the Manchu Qing because Shanhai is famous as the place through which the Manchus entered the crumbling Ming Empire to seize Beijing and the imperial throne.

A 1644-1645 depiction of the Battle of Shanhai Pass (1644), from Wikimedia Commons.

A modern map of the Ming Dynasty c. 1580, about a half-century before the start of the Qing conquest. Compare the Ming borders to those in the Qing atlas. From Wikimedia Commons.

Though other parts of the wall on the map seem to depict the Great Wall of China, this section (running on a north-south axis) extends beyond the Ming-era wall and seems to correspond instead with a section of the Willow Palisade, intended to separate Han settlers from the Manchu, another example of this map emphasizing the differences between predominantly Han, former Ming China and non-Han territories. 

A modern map of the Qing Dynasty in 1757, while this atlas was being compiled. The Willow palisade is just northwest of Korea. Note that the Qing empire at the time extended well beyond the borders of our map into Mongolia, Qinghai, and Tibet. From Wikimedia Commons users Kallgan and GnolizX.

The border between the Qing homelands of Manchuria and the somewhat independent kingdom of Joseon Korea is here shown as less solid than that between the Manchus and their formerly Ming subjects.

Note just how much is missing from this map of the Qing Empire: Tibet, Qinghai, much of Manchuria, and Mongolia. 

In 1854, the Qing's borders would have encapsulated almost every named region on this map save the Dzungar Khanate. Contrast that with the Atlas, which could be mistaken for a map of the Ming.

Miscellaneous detail: Apparently, the map shows Vietnam both as a kingdom bordering China to the south (see the region just north of this dot with the hollow red circle) and, mistakenly, as an island (see to the South). 
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Da_Qing_fen_sheng_yu_tu_LOC_2002626726-1.jpg. See the description.

The Gobi Desert. Is it so much bigger on today's map more because of desertification or because the Qing map made it far smaller than it was in 1754?

Interestingly, Tsushima is shown as a dot off the Korean coast. Japan is absent entirely.

Interestingly, this map chooses to highlight the ancient provincial (cuige in Irish) groupings of Ireland over the more currently useful separation by county, and even goes against the trend of maps from the era. 

As a consequence of British occupation at the time of this map's creation, chooses to display the British spelling instead of the proper Irish spelling, Doire or its anglicisation Derry.

County Offaly 

County Laois

Perhaps a product of its time, another quirk of this map is that it chooses to prioritise railways over roadways, such that, at least in the north, there are areas represented only by railway lines. The vast majority of these lines no longer exist, something that was hastened by the separation of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State (Later the ROI) 

Remnants of the Ballymena and Newtown Cormmelin RR

 

 

This map is noticeably missing Divis Mnt, a prominent feature of the area surrounding Belfast

Modern location of Harry Blaney Br. 

Proportioning of labels in this map are questionable

The distinction between river and place name labels are not clear in places

Translation of heading: 

"Table III: Showing the Dimensions of the Planetary Orb, and the Distances through the Five Regular Geometric Bodies"

 

• Kepler discovered that with any regular polygon, the ratio between the circumscribed and inscribed circles will be constant

• Kepler: Geometric basis for the structure of the universe?
• Thought this could be used to describe the ratio of the orbits of the 6 known planets in the solar system at the time 
  • Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
• Later moved on to Platonic solids and applied the same concept

 

Platonic solid: "any of the five geometric solids whose faces are all identical, regular polygons meeting at the same three-dimensional angles" https://www.britannica.com/science/Platonic-solid#:~:text=Platonic%20solid%2C%20any%20of%20the,Pythagoras%20(c.

 

Kepler: "I undertake to prove that God, in creating the universe and regulating the order of the cosmos, had in view the five regular bodies of geometry as known since the days of Pythagoras and Plato, and that He has fixed, according to those dimensions, the number of heavens, their proportions, and the relations of their movements."

Harvard Physics Project, 1970, https://fep.if.usp.br/~profis/arquivo/projetos/HARVARD/Ingles/reader2motioninh00fjam.pdf

Order of Platonic solids (closest to sun to farthest):

• Octahedron (8 regular triangles)
• Icosahedron (20 regular triangles)
• Dodecahedron (12 regular pentagons)
• Tetrahedron (4 regular triangles)
• Cube (6 regular squares)

 

Notice the circles on the equator of each sphere.

These represent planets, demonstrating how this is a depiction of celestial orbits.

These dashed lines appear in every level to highlight the dimensionality of each figure.

Notice how here they visually show how each sphere is perfectly inscribed within the Platonic solid surrounding it.

This illustration of Kepler's model is done by one Christophorus Leibfried Tubing in 1597.

The model itself was first introduced in 1596 with the publication of Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum, but this famous depiction of it came slightly later. 

Original publication of this model looked more like this: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kepler-solar-system-1.png

 

The text above gives some praise to Kepler for the astronomical breakthroughs in this map, as well as for portraying the Copernicus theory of orbits, that the planets revolve around the Sun, not the Earth 

(Kepler was a big proponent of this theory as you can see in his model here)

You may have noticed small symbols like these on every figure throughout the map...

...those correlate to this key, that describes the name for the Platonic solid it is labeling as well as the names of the planets within each relevant orbit. 

The Midwest's development during the 19th century

North Adams train stop

Endpoint of the railroads

Northern Pacific Railroad Route

Central Pacific Railroad Route

Pro. Pacific Railroad Route. What does pro mean?

Southern Pacific Railroad Route

One of the only lines that runs through Texas. It has only been a state for 15 years.

Railroad president

Prior to 1859, Back Bay was marsh land. It is now home to some of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the country. 

 

The Ted Williams Tunnel is an underground highway located beneath Boston Harbor and was constructed as part of Boston's "Big Dig" project.

Lines depict shallow water as boats approach land.

The Providence and Worcester Railroad operated as freight trains into and out of the city. 

Empty land was very prominent on the outskirts of downtown. A lot of land were used as landfills.

This water is now home to Boston Logan International Airport.

The Charles River is much more narrow in this current day due to the building of Back Bay.

While this map is clearly informational there are still some artistic elements.

The typeface used for the otherwise-plain cartouche seems to be inspired greatly from those designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who at the time would have been one of Wisconsin (not Madison)'s greatest cultural exports.

This map is strange because it purports to be a "historical map" yet it is unclear what time or time period it is trying to depict. The Capitol building though, in the center, was surrounded by a much more extensive grid of streets on all directions, as well more high-density buildings. 

 

Note what seems to be an error or covered spot on the shore Lake Monona near the Capitol.

The eventually wealthy inner suburb of Maple Bluff appears undeveloped in this map, though people were living in the area from at least 1809. The drawings here likely represent a high concentration of Indigenous burial mounds, which were in high concentration, but not protected by the state until the late 20th century. 

In the 19th century, Madison began to sell itself as a "Western resort town" to cater to tourists. This may explain the ornate border of this map which features a variety of different sports and outdoor activities. When viewed from afar, they almost seem to be a reference to classical times.

The mapmaker was faced with a lot of blank space to work with, especially as a result of Madison's two largest lakes that border the central isthmus. Much of the text supposedly explains the Indigenous origins of various names throughout the city. All of the tan-colored parts of the map are now highly-developed parts of the city. When georeferenced, any mapped parts outside of the isthmus become increasingly inaccurate in their approximation.

New insights: The Chee-Nuk group lists where several hundred of the Indigenous Ho-Chunk tribe lived in "dome-shaped wigwams" and "grew corn." It isn't common knowledge in Madison that these camps existed until at least the 1850s. Very little information is available online, but when I'm home, I'm going to search for any kind of plaque or markers.

For context, this map was created in 1570 by Dutch mapmaker Abraham Ortelius and centers upon Denmark, Sweden, and the Northern coast of Germany. This map is a part of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ("Theatre of the Lands of the World"), which is known to be the first modern atlas. Collecting upon the works and knowledge of over 30 cartographers, Ortelius created this highly organized, detailed atlas to allow for a consolidated body of Western European knowledge. Eventually, his atlas was translated into several different languages and published in multiple editions.

The elegant frame displaying the map's location (translates to "type of the Kingdom of Denmark") is seen throughout all of his maps to enforce a system of organization. 

As a whole, the map is mostly accurate and impressive considering the time period. However, when georeferencing with today's map, Ortelius' illustration is slightly warped in that the actual shapes of Denmark and Sweden are more curved than as depicted here (screenshot attached).

Since Denmark has a ton of islands (1,419 total), it's especially hard to pintpoint all of these islands in a precise way. Ortelius gets the general shape of main islands like Sjaelland and Jutland mostly right. What's interesting is that Ortelius depicts two islands between Funen and Sjaelland, that don't actually exist (or are grossly misplaced). I'm curious to know if this was a plain guess based on predictable features, and also who Ortelius received this information from.

There's a similar pattern over here - the islands going down the west coast of Denmark are actually all concentrated in the southwest portion of the country. It seems to be a very hopeful estimation that all of these islands Ortelius depicted lie so perfectly on Denmark's west coast.

It's interesting to see how the visualization are mostly identical across different Danish cities and there's not much indication to distinguish the capital city of Copenhagen from smaller villages, for instance. Also, Copenhagen (Coppen hauen) depicted here is far more north then where it lies today. Nevertheless, the level of detail employed by Ortelius and his references is quite admirable.

I also was curious about what these dark lines cutting through the top of Sjaelland indicate. There aren't any rivers in the region like it may imply; however, there are several inland ports and areas that cut through areas of Sjaelland and make interesting shapes. Perhaps this is what Ortelius hoped to convey, but just didn't have the approximate measurements or tools in place to do so (due to the "zig-zag" nature of Denmark's channels and ports).

Finally, this phrase over the water translates to "the Swedish Sea, formerly the Baltic Sea, now the German East Sea," possibly indicating a German-centric world or simplifying the terminology used to denote this body of water. The drawing of the ship seems to be a fluyt, or a Dutch ship used as a contract-for-hire vessel. Later, fluyts traversed the Hudson River in present-day New York.

This and other tables on the map show the orbital patterns of planets, explanations for varying lengths of days and nights and distances between the planets.

This table was used for predicting and calculating celestial events like solar and lunar eclipses

 

Brief description of North America mentions "humped oxen" or bison (駝峰牛 tuófēngníu), feral horses (野馬, yěmǎ), and names Canada (加拿大, Jiānádà)

Pasquale d'Elia in 1938 translated this text written by the author, Matteo Ricci:

"Once I thought learning was a multifold experience and I would not refuse to travel [even] ten thousand Li to be able to question wise men and visit celebrated countries. But how long is a man’s life? It is certain that many years are needed to acquire a complete science, based on a vast number of observations: and that’s where one becomes old without the time to make use of this science. Is this not a painful thing?

And this is why I put great store by [geographical] maps and history: history for fixing [these observations], and maps for handing them on [to future generations].

Respectfully written by the European Matteo Ricci on 17 August 1602."

More information and tables on solar and lunar eclipses. Followed by an explanation on how to use the information for calculations.

The cantonment is highlighted in yellow. 

 

Lucknow is the capital of Uttar Pradesh. It is located in Northern India and neighbors New Delhi, the capital of India and, the British Raj during their colonization of the country. 

 

Red buildings represent the Indian populations homes, places of work, and more.

Green space represents the grassy parks in the city

Blue represents the rivers and other bodies of water.

it is interesting to note that there are two prisons. One is located here. Labeled as the central prison, outside of the cantonment. 

The other prison is inside the walls. 

The main railway stop is located here, just outside the borders of the cantonment. 

Here is a prominent mosque: 

 

Here is the Bara Imambara, right next to King George's Hospital.

There is a lot of information presented on the Eastern Coast of the U..S. One interesting note on this map is that Scott did not do anything to show larger cities compared to smaller cities, as New York is written in the same size font, and even at an unusual angle, rather than being emphasized.

There is also a high degree of accuracy along the eastern U.S., such as around the Chesapeake bay and the islands of the coast of North Carolina. 

Image is from Google Maps for comparison.

The western U.S. on this map, or the current midwest, is much less detailed. While basic geographic features are shown, like the Saginaw and Green Bays along the lakes, but the details are not as precise.

Since this is a 1795 map, the map shows a different period of U.S. history, where most of today's midwest states were still one territory, the Northwest Territory. Modern day Tennessee was also called the Southwest Territory, which it only was for 6 years from 1790-1796, so this is a rare appearance of that territory, and it also shows a elongated Georgia and Florida, where the Florida panhandle extends to the Mississippi River and Georgia includes much of current day Alabama and Mississippi.

The U.S. western border in 1795 was still the Mississippi River, with French Louisiana to the west.

This map shows the land where Native American Tribes were living at the time, even though they were not recognized by the U.S. or Georgia government. In the same year this map was made, the Georgia government sold land to 4 land companies, despite the land already being occupied by Native American tribes.

country of very healthy weather made inhabited by King Arfu

In 16th century, people still believed that after the cold northern seas in the northern direction, there is warm land and sea which is perfect for life.

Stormy sea

Before the "best land" there is a stormy sea

Grolandia Groueandia Grolandia

Is this actually Greenand and why is it spelled differenty?

vorago(lat.) - deep hole, chasm, watery hollow

It seems like it was believed that there was a gulf that prevente dthe ships from entering the warm northern lands

Source: https://latin-dictionary.net/definition/39101/vorago-voraginis

Frislandia Phantom island is a phantom island that appeared on virtually all of the maps of the North Atlantic from the 1560s through the 1660s. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisland]

 

This island is also not very clear. It is most probably Greenland. However, I am quite confused by the text: I coud not translate it fully, but  the rough translation is: "Almost ..... Pigmei ...... under the earth every season"

Finland got shrinked and turned around at the map, but still labelled as Finland

the Novaya Zemlya Island is depicted with quite good accuracy for the time

The reference to the mythical Hyperborea nation.  They were the myhticla people who lived in the northern part of the known world, to the north of Rifei mountains.

Even though livonia is usually considered to be Latvia or Lithuania, at this map, it is straching far to the south whihc probably menas that this is the name for Polish-Lithuanian state, founded in 1569.

The modern-date capitals of Latvia and Lithunia - Riga and Vilnus are depicted as a part of White Russia (aka Belarus). The "Litvania" (probably Lithuania is far to the west next to Pomerania region.

The Western Europe is depicted relatively precisey due to the closeness to the hometown of the cartographer.

Area of NC that has not yet been mapped.

Pamlico Sound

The map key lists many of the important buildings of Peebles such as: the townhouse, post office, "Meeting ho.", and a lodge. The key also includes a more in depth view of the town center. 

One of the most defining features of this map is its scattered lines or hashes. Many of these markings are named hills. The topography of this map helps stress that Scotland has a very mountainous terrain. 

While this map only covers the relatively small city of Pebbles, its immense details should not be overlooked. Under this dot is a singular house near another building called the Hay Lodge. This map attempts to illuminate every small detail within the cities borders.

This map was made over 190 years ago yet still many borders of cities within Pebbles remain the same. While a lot has changed since this map was made, one could still use this map to navigate to major cities within this part of Scotland.

Edo Castle

There are nothing but gates are represented on the map.

Shitamachi (Old town)

There must have been city center for artisans and marchants, but not particulary marked on the map.

Musashi

Province name

Name of town or village, its land-owner (lord), and temples / shrines along the road.

Text are placed vertically to the road.