The SDUK is unique organization in the history of knowledge acquisition.

This is the location of St. Stephens Place and the Dom Kirche Cathedral.

The map provides a very useful elevation view of major monuments, including St. Stephen's Place and the Dom Kirche Cathedral.

This is a map of Vienna by the SDUK which was an innovative cultural education in the 19th Century.

This is St. Stephen's Place, home of the Dom Kirche Cathedral.

The map engages viewers by showing elevations of key buildings. Here we have the Dom Kirche Cathedral in St. Stephen's Place.

There is the Seward Peninsula where the Bering Sea Bridge was formed out of ice. This is how the first inhabitants of North America first reached the continent. This bridge, and likewise this territory, is the single most important landmark in the history of North and South America. 

This is Point Barrow. During the summer and winter months they receive a constant 24 hours of sunlight or darkness for 80 straight days. 

This is Cold Bay in the Alaskan Peninsula. Despite this map depicting a seal, which makes the area seem inviting, this is one of the most heavily stocked areas in Alaska with trophy sized brown bear. Hunting permits are only released every 4 years.

Even though it's been almost 100 years since this map was created, These are still the main and only real major cities. While some like Kenai and Fairbanks have begun to develop, the reality is there has been very little progress in this state.

This British map, published in 1861, is, in my opinion, designed to give an unfamiliar public an overview of the land upon which the Civil War is set to take place.

The map is a north-facing bird's eye view of the South. The underlying data was taken from ordinance surveys, but it is clear that some geographic liberties were taken, such as the distortion of Florida to fit it into the map's confines.

The map's goal of giving an overview of the American South at the outset of the Civil War is made clear by the caption.

States where Slavery was legal are denoted with the "S." symbol

As noted, this map shows the South at the outset of the Civil War. 2 years after publication, West Virginia would be cleaved from Virginia and admitted to the Union.

The Appalachians have been illustrated, but the craggy mountains drawn do not reflect the topographic reality. In my opinion, this is an acceptable liberty to take, as this map is meant to give an uninitiated onlooker an overview of the area, and is not to be used for navigation.

Another liberty taken is the widening of the Mississippi River for visibility's sake.

The map has hand-painted color throughout, but they are most vivid in the South.

The map is generally accurate, but notable errors, such as the placement of Rome and Marietta, two Georgia cities, in Alabama, do exist.

Another error present is that all of Indiana is called Indianapolis.

The most notable part of this map might be its robust key. We are here given the 9 major Roman provinces with descriptions of their original populations, recent invaders, and conquerers. This is to give readers a comprehensive picture of roman history, encoded within the different regions of the map.

Here is an interesting marker of this map's age! "Most numerous society". Also mention of physical scale here.

Moving on, we are given a clear description of Hannibal's journey across the Alps, and his eventual return to Carthage. This is a demonstration of what this map would have been used for and what its makers were trying to create (a historical description). It also symbolizes Hannibal as the only or greatest ever threat to the romans. 

It is worth noting a brief written description of Hannibal's journey in the bottom right.

Illyria and Asia Minor are no longer really terms used to describe places anymore. Even the landscape of historical mapping changes over time. 

I suppose the map is trying to answer the question why the Roman Empire was so militarily dominant. It is, after all, divided into regions of accumulated conquest. That also explains why we get population and military demographics. 

Here is the marker of the the division between eastern and western Roman Empire, which happened in 395 AD. Weirdly this is described as happening in 504 AC (ante Christum or after christ). Eastern Rome later became known as the Byzantine Empire. 

In many ways this map is speculative. It is largely based on record keeping from more than 1 thousand years before it was made. 

In typical New England fashion, the legend depicts settlements as having post offices and churches - oftentimes a white Congregational Church in the center of town, not unlike that of Williamstown.

Note that “Vermont” is depicted right over Western Connecticut. The Vermont colony did not extend all the way down through the Berkshires, so this was likely added in to provide directional reference for map users.

The scale provided is the longitude “east from Philadelphia,” the site of the Founding of the Republic and the national capital at the time.

Old Newgate Prison, the oldest charted state prison in colonial America. It is still in the Town of Granby - East Granby, the prison’s present location, has not been incorporated yet. It was located in a copper deposit on the ridge, as depicted in this map. Salmon River is now called Salmon Brook. The Congregational Church that today stands in the center of East Granby already exists, however.

The Farmington Valley towns of Canton and Avon do not exist yet. Avon is still a part of Farmington. Simsbury stretches all the way to the west, to what is now Canton. Secession was to happen in the 1800s.

The Southwick Jog, or Granby Notch - the distinctive chunk of Massachusetts jutting into Connecticut prominent on modern maps - does not exist yet. The state line north of Granby and Suffield is a continuous line, and Connecticut owns all of Congamond Lake.

The Barkhamsted Reservoir does not exist yet, and the town is spelled “Barkhamstead.”

North Canaan does not exist yet; it is still a part of Canaan.

The “Road to Albany” is the Albany Turnpike, now part of US Route 44. This reflects the long heritage of the state’s road network, with many paths even predating the automobile!

South Windsor and Manchester do not exist yet as separate towns. Neither does Windsor Locks - all are still a part of their parent towns.

Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, the towns at the mouth of the Connecticut River, were simply “Saybrook” and “Lyme”.

The “New Thames River” between New London and Groton is now known simply as the “Thames River”.

Many current Fairfield County towns do not exist yet. Norwalk stretches way north, into what is now Wilton. Wilton, despite having its own parish (as shown on this map) only became independent of Norwalk in 1802.

Note the exaggeratedly-small depiction of Manhattan Island as "New York," 

In typical New England fashion, the legend depicts settlements as having post offices and churches - oftentimes a white Congregational Church in the center of town, not unlike that of Williamstown.

Title

Publisher

Diagram of Fort McHenry

Location of Fort McHenry

Diagram of Fortress Monroe

Diagram of Fortress Monroe

Blue Ridge Mountains

West Virginia does not exist yet

Mason Dixon Line 

Future Location of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

This is a map of Duval County, Florida in the year 1898. The map was made by Francis LeBaron, an engineer with the U.S. Army corps of Engineers. The map was made on the behalf of the County Commissioners.

This is the legend of the map, which explains what measurements were taken into account in the making of this map. The map used data from the U.S. Land Survey, along with data from the surveys and plans of the U.S. army.

This is the Directory of Jacksonville in 1898. It includes the names and office locations of prominent citizens of Jacksonville. For example, it includes the name of the baker and blacksmith used in Jacksonville at that time.

This is a distance table showing distance between Jacksonville and other major Florida cities. Of special interest is the separation of distance by modes of travel, reflecting the accuracy of the map and its reliance on Survey data. 

This is the general map index, and provides a lot of information on many different subjects. It includes information on islands, rivers, subdivisions, the prominent landholders and donators of Jacksonville, port locations, railroad stations, and steamboat lines. The amount of information in this index would be especially helpful for people traveling the area, or for the government to gain an accurate picture of Jacksonville

This is the St. John's river, which flows through Jacksonville and is one of Florida's major waterways. At this point on the map, the St. John's river used to be narrow and shallow enough that cattle could cross between banks. For this reason, the city of Jacksonville was called Cowford, until it was later changed.

This is the Florida East Coast Railroad, or the FEC. This railway was built by Henry Flagler, and runs from Jacksonville to Miami. Eventually, the railway became the first one to extend to Key West in 1912. Today, the railroad is still there, and still is operational, carrying mostly cargo trains.

This is my neighborhood, which is now called San Marco. At this time, it was home to a major mansion that covered much of my existing neighborhood. The mansion was called Villa Alexandria, as shown here in the map

This is the San Jose sub-division of Jacksonville. At this time, it was largely forest, but would soon become the home of the DuPont family mansion. Neighboring the mansion would stand the San Jose hotel. Today, the former mansion is part of a yacht and country club, while the hotel is now the main building for The Bolles School, where I attended high school.

This map of Africa was produced by the Engraver Jacob von Sandrart in Nuremberg.

This map is generally accurate, but displays the amount of knowledge available to the cartographer.

The interior was produced with a heavy reliance on Ptolemy.

The path of the Niger river is another main innacuracy.

The size of the Ethiopian empire is another major innacuracy.

Barbary coast is well mapped

Most interesting is the commentary by the engraving in the bottom left.

Generally, I think this map is very impactful because it excellently depicts an average European's perspective of Africa.

This is a map of Monroe County in NY, from 1829

This is Bushnell's Basin, right next to where my house is today.

Notice how artistic the title of the map is, and how detailed each of the letters is drawn.

I noticed these lines here in most of the bodies of water. It doesn't specifically say what they mean, but I would assume the denser the lines get, the shallower the water is.

This is labeled on the map as Teoronto Bay, which is present day Irondequoit Bay, and the best salmon fishing spot I know of.

These are interesting annotations from the cartographer. I assume the "Fall - F!" means that there is a drop in the river or a waterfalls and rapids.

Thought this was a cool map legend because it shows a lot of different types of buildings.

All 6 of the places on the left of the map all have different names today and don't exist.

This is a book map made by Emma Willard in 1842. She was an education activist, and founded the first school for women's higher education. This is a depiction of the signing of the Declaration of Independence which takes place in 1776. I assume this map was made to demonstrate to students what the major cities were at the time of the signing. 

This is a map of Boston. It gives the general idea of Boston today, but it is not entirely accurate. The center part should definitely be more connected to the bottom if we base if off of what is labeled as Cambridge and the Charles River, which seem to be correct. The center is the most strikingly inaccurate/different from today. 
- What are the American right and left wings standing for?

This map of Charleston seems fairly accurate. It focuses greatly on the harbor and the forts. Fort Moultrie was taken over by Fort Sumter in the 1800s. Fort Johnson is the other fort on this map which is on James Island.

In this map of mostly New Jersey, the towns seem pretty accurate, Princeton for example is seemingly where it is today. Morristown and Newark are also others that stand out to me as correctly placed. There are also two encampments on here which surprised me. Valley Forge of 1777 on the bottom left and Encampment 1776&7 on the upper right. I assume the stripped lines are water, so the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean.

Berghen stood out to me as being somewhat emphasized, maybe just simplified, but it is now mostly the town of Beyonne. 
 

Philadelphia oddly looks like it is in New Jersey. This is mostly the way it is labeled and I don't think people really thought Philadelphia was in New Jersey. 

This is a map of Northern New York. When I looked at this I realized that each map is drawn to different scales. 
This scale all feels slightly off to me. Saratoga should be a little farther from Lake George, which is a little larger. But all of the names are very current and exactly the same as todays map.

This is a map of New York City. They have the fort names. They also only label Manhattan as New York Island with Bloomingdale, which is today the neighborhood I am from, and Harlem Heights. The other label is American Army, where I presume there was an army base.

This is another example of the exaggerations and scales that seem off. The East river into the Harlem river seems slightly larger than they should be. Nothing crazy, but felt worth noting.

There are some dates on this map. This one says British Army September 3rd 1776. I think there was a British army base put there on September 3rd.

There are a lot of boxes on this map. This one stood out to me because it has lines connecting them making them look like a train. I do think this was another American Army base, not a train, but the dotted lines could mean a wall and the blocks could mean buildings. 

This map serves a purpose of teaching general geography of the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Though it does not seem all completely accurate and to scale, I think it achieves its mission to educate people on waterways between major cities in the North East of America.

This map of what was then the "upper territories" of the US was published in 1815 by Mathew Carey, as part of his General Atlas of America. The shape of the land is generally fairly accurate, though it is interesting to observe some differences in state boundaries compared to today.

The Northwest Territory includes parts of Northern Minnesota and in this map, appears to encroach on southern parts of Canada. I did some research and it seems like it did not include parts of present day Canada, so perhaps the borders were drawn a little farther north than intended.

This part of Michigan is geographically incorrect. The bay is drawn smaller than it actually is, and the border extends farther East than it should, obscuring the shape of Lake Huron.

All across the map are these weird dashed lines, which I assume to be topographical markings. 

From looking at some current topographical maps, it seems like these markings are not entirely accurate. Michigan does have some hills, but they are farther north and don't really continue down throughout the state like in the markings shown here. 

This map also shows very detailed locations of rivers, which appear to be fairly accurate. This section shows several rivers in parts of Southern Indiana.

Something I think is interesting is that the level of detail doesn't extend all the way into Ohio. Its shape and some major rivers are shown, but it lacks the topographical detail that the other states show. The smaller rivers are also not drawn in.

I also thought it was interesting that the mapmaker chose to extend the major rivers almost past the edge of the map, into Kentucky and parts of the Louisiana Purchase that are barely even drawn in.

Overall, this map is mostly accurate in showing the shape, topographical features, and rivers of the Upper Territories, though there are some incorrect features. It seems as though this may have been used to encourage people to explore and settle these territories.

I first wanted to point out that this part of what is now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is part of the Northwest Territories in this map, which includes present - day Wisconsin and parts of Michigan and Minnesota. Michigan acquired the Upper Peninsula when it officially became a state in 1837.

This is a map of Medford, MA, my hometown located about five miles from Boston, in 1855. This map comes from Harvard's map collection. The cartographer, HF Walling, was the Commonwealth's Superintendent of the State Map. 

These are the Upper and Lower Mystic Lakes, labeled here as Mystic Pond. The water flows into the Mystic River, which creates the southern border of Medford. 

I lived in this general vicinity, about 100 meters from the Boston and Lowell Rail and 800 meters from George Street. As you can see, this area was not housing yet and was owned by GL Stearns, a Medford native. 

This is how Medford Square was oriented. It still has this rotary, but also includes traffic lights and pedestrian medians today. There are much more businesses in this area and less private residencies. The town hall (now city hall) is now a sushi restaurant. The city hall was moved one block west onto Salem St. 

 

The Boston and Lowell Rail line, which was then sold to other rail companies until the present, is now used as an MBTA track for the Commuter Rail. 

This undeveloped region, which still takes up a large area of Medford, is now known as the Middlesex Fells and is split between Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Winchester. However, it was not established as a public reservation until 1893. In this map, it is split between different landowners. 

This oxbow lake forming off of the Mystic River is no longer here. 

This is where Tufts College still sits today, and throughout the map there are parcels of land owned by Charles Tufts. The main campus has expanded since this map, as the school was only founded in 1852. Some of these parcels still hold Tufts-operated buildings. 

This is a train station for a rail that no longer exists here. The Medford Branch Railroad was a part of Boston and Maine Railroad. The part of the rail here still in use by the MBTA runs north to south with a station at Wellington (in this area). It's really interesting to see how these railroads were used back then and how they are used or not used now. 

This area, now known as the Brooks Estate, was created in 1881. Edward Brooks was a distant relative of Shepherd Brooks, who built this manor. It is now a member of the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. 

This key explains the arrangement of the map. Presidencies were the regions that were directly under the control of the British East India Company. 

This map shows the proposed railway that planned to connect Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. The first railway was actually established two years after this map was published and connected Bombay to Thane.

There are many military stations along the coast since the Bay of Bengal was an extremely important trade route. 

Civil stations were areas built for British inhabitants. Often, they were military stations as well to protect British civilians more effectively. 

This map shows several illustrations that depict life and activities in different regions of British India. This particular one presents the Qutb Minar in Delhi, which was a symbol of Islamic rule and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

These illustrations reinforce colonial stereotypes of nomadic and tribal people. The Balochis are seen in an ethnic attire and engaging in violent acts. 

Meanwhile, the people in Lahore are shown to be participating in more sophisticated and educated activities, such as equestrianism. 

Regions, such as Baluchistan, did not become part of British India until much later. It was in 1876 that it became a province in colonial India. Later, this province and the surrounding region became Pakistan during the partition of 1947. 

Kashmir was a princely state in British India. Today, it is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. 

The 1857 Sepoy Mutiny originated in Meerut, a garrison town 40 miles from Delhi. After this event, the British Crown took over India and colonial rule began.  

This piece is titled “A Map of New England” and it dates back to 1677. The creator is John Foster. The map is based on a 1665 survey by William Reed that was commissioned by the government of Massachusetts. The piece was prepared as a woodcut illustration. It was the first known map of North America to be published in the English colonies.

The survey was commissioned in order to justify the Northern and Southern boundaries of the colony, which were indicated by the two parallel lines.

The layout of the map is a bit disorienting, with the western part of New England along the top of the page and the eastern regions towards the bottom.

The map includes Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and parts of Maine and New York (present day area known as New England).

A great number of town names are present, including Boston and Plymouth which were key spots for European settlement.

The map also includes a fair amount of natural features, including rivers such as the Merrimack River.

It also depicts coastal areas such as Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

There are illustrations of Native people with trees and wildlife, which recognizes indigenous people and adds to the artistic element of this map.

Another artistic choice made by the cartographer was to include ships in the ocean, which might have been made to encourage Europeans to continue exploring North America.

One inaccuracy is Rhode Island, which is shown as a completely separate plot of land detached from the mainland.

This forest in the New Hampshire region was also labeled “Wine Hills” when other maps consistently labeled it “White Hills”. This may have been an oversight by the creator. 

Overall, this map may have been made to positively influence European opinions on exploration of North America or to give them a sense of the layout of the land that had already been explored.

These are the San Juan Islands, situated between what is modern day Washington state and the Vancouver Islands (owned by Canada). In the 19th century they were the object of a minor border dispute between the US and Great Britain. 

The border between the US and what was then called British North America had been established at the 49th parallel.

If the border had continued straight here, the British would have lost the Vancouver Islands, so the two sides agreed that the border would run due South through the middle of the channel once it met the straight of Georgia.

However, they were unaware of the presence of the San Juan Islands. These islands created three possible channels through which the border could pass.

The American wanted the border to pass through the Haro Straight, to maximize their territory.

The British wanted the border to pass through the Rosario Straight to maximize their territory.

Failed American miners from the Fraser Canyon Gold rush settled San Juan Island. When one of them shot a British farmer's pig when it ate his potato crops, British officials threatened to arrest him and try him on British territory.

American military officials in the area (including Pickett) set up an army camp on the island and had a stand off with British forces that eventually devolved into a 'Joint Occupation' of the island.

It wasn't until after the Civil War that the issue of who owned the San Juan Islands was submitted to international arbitration by the Empire of Germany.

Germany decided in favor of the United States, and in 1872 (the year this map was made) British troops left the island.

In 1979, the MTA changed the subway map as a response to complaints that it was too difficult to use. They hired the Hertz firm to develop a geographical map that was more accessible. The question that this subway map aims to answer is, how do I get from point a to point b. Secondly, or implicitly, where do I go through the city to get to my end destination? 

Nobuyuki Siraisi was the main designer on this map. He was a painter and sculptor, so he took a different approach to creating this map. He decided to ride every subway line with his eyes closed, and draw the line that he felt it was making. This also addressed some of the complaints of the old map and how the straight lines were disorienting. 

This legend explains the features of the map. On the left side, it explains what the symbols are. Then it explains the different font sizes to differentiate 24/7 service and limited service. On the right, there are different bubbles for local stops vs express stops, so those are clearly labeled. Then, it shows how you are able to connect to different subway lines, either underground or outside. 

The train lines are color coded, with the idea that it was easier to identify them verbally, but if you have spent time in New York, you know people don’t refer to trains by their colors… 

The 123 lines are combined when they run the same path for simplicity. This is true for any express and local shared lines. As we learned from the legend, 86 is a local stop with only the 1 train, 96 is an express stop, and north of that, the express and local trains split off from each other and have their own paths. 

Not all streets are drawn and named, just the important ones to get a sense of where you are. The subway lines are drawn to scale with the streets, but not all streets need to be named. 

Central park is drawn with the bodies of water in it as well as large land masses. This was with the idea of orienting people around where they are. 

Other parts of the map are purposefully distorted so that it can accommodate dense transit areas like lower manhattan. 

I am potentially partial, but I think this is the best subway map because it shows you where you are in the city while also clearly demonstrating what is going on underground. While in the subway you see only the train line you are on and what stop is next, which is also helpful.

Perplexity | 

who is Jasper von Seeburg?

Jasper von Seeburg is a modern cartographer celebrated for his creative and detailed approach to mapmaking. Based in Berlin, von Seeburg combines traditional cartographic techniques with advanced digital tools to produce maps that are both functional and visually striking. His work often explores themes of urban transit, geography, and cultural storytelling.

One of his most notable projects is the conceptual design for the New York City Elevated Rail System, a fantasy transit map envisioning an 88-mile automated rapid-transit network connecting all five boroughs. The map integrates with existing subway and commuter rail systems, aiming to improve access to underserved neighborhoods. Drawing inspiration from historical New York transit maps, such as the 1979 Hertz/Tauranac design, von Seeburg's creation balances aesthetic elegance with practical considerations[2][4].

Von Seeburg’s maps often reflect a deep understanding of urban planning and transportation systems. His designs are featured on platforms like *Transit Maps* and have gained recognition for their innovative style and attention to detail[2][4]. Beyond transit mapping, he also engages in thematic cartography, using maps to visualize complex data and narratives.

Through his work, Jasper von Seeburg continues to push the boundaries of cartography, blending art and utility to create maps that captivate and inform audiences worldwide.

Citations:
[1] https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/M60-2022-20
[2] https://transitmap.net/new-york-el-jasper-von-seeburg/
[3] https://news.wisc.edu/40-year-map-project-history-of-cartography-draws-to-a-close/
[4] https://transitmap.net/tag/jasper-von-seeburg/
[5] https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/+/Von+Seeburg
[6] https://transitmap.net/2022/05/
[7] https://thequeenslink.org/who-we-are/
[8] https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Jasper/Von/us-0-United-States
[9] https://transitmap.net/remap-video/
[10] https://transitmap.net/tag/elevated-railway/
[11] https://citylimits.org/2024/04/02/opinion-as-congestion-pricing-approaches-queenslink-must-move-forward/
[12] https://pahar.in/pahar/Books%20and%20Articles/Tibet%20and%20China/1933%20Riddles%20of%20the%20Gobi%20Desert%20by%20Hedin%20s.pdf
[13] https://citylimits.org/tag/public-transit/
[14] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1461389/5/DDMLopes_Thesis.pdf
[15] https://www.fashion-schools.org/request-information?formUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fxn--80ajnfqsfe5f.xn--p1ai%2Fkygmuldwfqfe85m
[16] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA359240.pdf
[17] https://emlo.cottagelabs.com/browse/
[18] https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/commercial-financial-chronicle-1339/december-9-1963-557019/fulltext

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Answer from Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/write-a-200-word-biography-of-WUymCmdMQGi_SLbDV48lTw?utm_source=copy_output 

AVAs in the United States are concentrated in California (where this screenshot was taken), because California is the center of the US wine industry.

The sources for this map are Esri and the US Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce provided the actual geographic definitions of the AVAs, while Esri provided the base map and geographic information systems software.

Each of these areas is designated an American Viticultural Area, or AVA. They each have distinctive elements to their soil, histories, or winemaking practices, as well as the grape varietal grown, providing wine consumers a flavor specific to the area.

Northern California's Napa Valley, made famous when its wines outscored French first-growths, is one of the premier AVAs in the country. It itself contains many sub-appellations.

Another high concentration of AVAs lies in Santa Barbara County. This region is known for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varietals, as is the Willamette Valley, Oregon (not pictured)

There are AVAs in the San Francisco Bay Area, but because of the high price/density of the land as well as the industrialized nature of the area, wine production there is not as extensive as the Napa Valley.

The AVA system is largely based on the French appellation system (think Champagne) that links geographic areas to wine flavor and quality with the concept of terroir.

Q - The map was made by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a government agency, for winemakers to serve as a labeling aid. It was paid for by taxpayers.

Some of the boundaries on this map loosely follow county lines, but most are due to historical groups of wineries, soil types, or loose definitions. I found it interesting that such labeling is so highly regulated.

This is a 3D model of the Earth with all of the earthquakes in the last year labeled

Major earthquakes are represented by Yellow or Red dots. When zooming in on the interactive map, you can see shake intensity and specific data relating to the earthquake.

These grey dots also represent earthquakes, but ones that are on a much smaller scale.

These blue lines represent tectonic plates, specifically divergent plate types. At these boundaries, plates move away from each other, creating the possibility of earthquakes. The blue line here is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The red lines are convergent plate boundaries, forming volcanoes with the possibility of intense earthquakes. This specific red line is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

This blue dot represents the earthquake in Maine that happened on Monday. This map is continually and frequently updated, providing an accurate picture of earthquakes across the globe

This map/website assesses the strength of gerrymandering within each state and gives the state a grade on how unreasonable the gerrymandering is

The maps and grades are done by a group called The Gerrymandering Project with the intention of highlighting unfairness in states districts and educating the general public about gerrymandering

The site runs simulations of different districts to assess the fairness of the shapes of the districts as well as looking at the competitiveness within the current districts. The darker the color, the less competitive. The site also looks at geographic features like county lines and "compactness" to determine the gerrymandering grade. None of this data is speculative and all has mathematical support which can be viewed in the site but would take too much time in my presentation

The maps are well designed and easy to understand for all 50 states and their house/senate districts. The larger map showing all 50 states is very interesting to see where some of the strongest gerrymandering goes on

This is a map of Williamstown with all the different fishing spots.

Uses GPS so you can always see where you are in relation to the fishing spot.

This is like a dot on Pixeum, but when you click on it, it will show you what fish was caught there, who caught it, what lure they used, and when.

These are the exact points where people posted their catches on Fishbrain. It will show you the same information as the body of water point, but for an individual catch.

These are interactive borders that you can click on to see forests or state parks. It will show you how many acres it is.

It will show you when someone recently caught a fish at a spot near you. This one is a Chain Pickeral someone caught ice fishing 2 days ago in Cheshire Lake.

This is an AI predictor that takes historical catches from the same weather and conditions in previous years to predict where the best place to fish would be now.

Here is a filter where you can filter out catches during certain parts of the year, or certain species of fish.

The scale of this map goes from Red to Black, with Red being below the 10th percentile, Green being from the 25th to 75th percentile, and black being >90th percentile. This is simply a map of Massachusetts and the different flow conditions from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This site also has the entire country mapped and you can move around to any state.

Berkshires. Despite how much rainfall and snow we've had this year, it still demonstrates that this area needs a ton of water. 

Boston is a huge draw, so water levels are going to be expected to be this low.

I thought it was interesting that flow rates would be low out on the cape. I'm assuming that's because even though the area has high levels of neighboring water, it doesn't have the topography the experiences higher flow rates.

As far as whether or not this map is good, I feel like it could definitely be improved upon to be a bit more accurate for more highly concentrated areas, like the Berkshires. I don't think it's very unusual. It's meaningful to me as I like to fish. The fish in this area like a certain amount of water to flowing over their gills and at a certain temperature. I use maps like these to determine when it's a good time to go out. 

In 2024 North Carolina elected 4 democrats and 10 republicans to represent them in US congress. I have used a re-districting tool to change that number to 8 democrats and 6 republicans with the same voter outcomes.

On the left my is margin-of-error. Each district is supposed to contain 745,671 voters in order for the electoral process to be fair. My highest error is less than 10,000 voters.

This process involves taking dense democrat leaning cities and splitting them into many pieces. This here is Charlotte, which formerly was 1 district. I made the 5th and 6th districts absorb a ton of rural republicans and split Charlotte into more moderately Democrat districts.

In order to get total exactitude here you'd have to be able to split precincts as they are not uniformly populated. 

Ironically, this map is only slightly more skewed to the left than the current map is skewed to the right. 52 percent voted Republican and 42 voted Democrat, yet a disproportionate 28.5% of seats went to Democrats.

This is a map of North Carolina with a few important overlays. First are precinct lines. Then are labelled electoral districts. In each precinct voted from the 2024 congressional election in NC are counted. The congressional district they are in are colored differently (between dark blue and red) in order to represent the partisan lean of each district. 

Source: https://davesredistricting.org/maps#home

This is a world map in which the size of each country is adjusted for its percentage of the world's population. Rather than adjusting the size of a given area of land for its population, this map adjusts the entire country even if some areas of that country are less populous than others. This map is not meant for navigation. Instead, it allows its consumers to visualize the relative population sizes of countries. 

As you can see, India, China, and Indonesia are very large. This is unsurprising. However, there are a few other things that I found surprising or interesting on this map.

The Philippines are much larger than I assumed they would be. Wondering if this was a mistake, I looked up the population of the Philippines and apparently their population surpasses one hundred million people.

Russia's tiny size also surprised me, because I think of it as a large, populous country. Because Russia is such a long country, the only way to represent its relative population while maintaining its length was to make it extremely thin.

An alternative way to construct this map would have been to make Western Russia larger (where most of Russia's population is concentrated) and make the sparsely populated Urals and Siberia even smaller. 

Another example of the unique way this map is constructed is the size of Alaska. The size of the United States, including Alaska, is adjusted for its percentage of the global population, without considering the regions within the United States that contain a larger or smaller portion of its populaiton.

I found this map interesting because of the way it chooses to display a particular piece of information. The mapmaker wanted to create a guide to global populations as they were divided by international political boundaries. This map is not inaccurate in terms of this criteria, even if it is inaccurate geographically.

This is a map of the National Risk Index for Natural Hazards of the United States. It was created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the US Department of Homeland Security.

This legend explains each color that is shown on the map, including a dark red color for “very high” risk and a dark blue color for “very low” risk. 

The legend also has the types of data that were used to construct this map, which are expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience. These categories were used to calculate the risk index.

In the next few sections I wanted to point out particular areas of interest and report some of their scores. Here we have Berkshire county, which has a relatively low index and a score of 59.5. With expected annual loss and social vulnerability relatively low and community resilience very high, this area doesn’t have a high hazard type risk rating in any category.

Here is New York City, specifically Manhattan. Manhattan has a score of 96.18, with expected annual loss and social vulnerability relatively high with community resilience relatively moderate. New York City has high risk scores for heat waves, strong winds, and coastal flooding.

This is Los Angeles California and it has a score of 100. It has high scores in several types of natural disasters, including earthquakes, wildfires, lightning, and landslides.

Overall, this map has several purposes. It can be used to support resilience efforts, make sure resources go to places where they are most needed, and to warn communities that are most at risk to natural disasters. I think that it is well designed, very useful, and easy to use.

I organized this legend by the legality and restrictions of cannabis, abortion, and right-to-carry (concealed carry) to show which states prioritize what. 

6 states, including the glorious state of Maine, have legal cannabis, abortion past 18 weeks, and unrestricted right-to-carry laws. 

I find it ironic the states which have banned abortion but have unrestricted RTC laws. Idaho is the only state to have the lack of RTC restrictions and having cannabis and abortions both be illegal. 

6 states (Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) have their own unique restrictions. Wisconsin, for example, only allows the sale of CBD oil, has abortion being legal past 18 weeks, and having a "shall issue" conceal carry law, meaning that obtaining a permit is straightforward. 

A majority of the South follow the same rules of mixed cannabis laws (typically meaning medical use is legal while recreational is not), banned abortion, and unrestricted RTC laws. 

I don't want to get too political, but it is merely interesting to me to see which states have decided that neither cannabis should not be recreationally/medically legal, nor abortions either past the 18th week or at all, yet allow concealed carry of firearms, which objectively kills more US citizens than both cannabis and abortions. 

This map is produced using data from OpenStreetMaps, an open source map of the world.

You can select what time of any day using this slider, which allows you to see how things change over time.

At this zoomed out level, the map does not appear to be very interesting, but if you zoom in (which we will) you can see how mountains and other changes in elevation affect what is shaded.

When you zoom in more, shadows from trees and buildings come into play.