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Tom Paper's Glimpse Talk for GSB Reunion - October 2025
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A Rainy & Miserable Night
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A Happy Camper
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Alas, poor Yorick
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Voyageurs
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Crazy About Canoes
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Discovered Antique Maps
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Hendrik Hondius - 1630
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Out of Space
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Started Digitizing
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My website
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Crazy about maps
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North and South America - Munster - 1559
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The World - Waldseemueller - 1507
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Catalan Atlas - 1375 - from Wikipedia
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Psalter Map - artist unknown - 1265
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2025-08-26 14:49:48
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State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota
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San Francisco - Chevalier - 1904
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Typus Orbus Terrarum - Ortelius - 1570
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North Pole - Gerardus Mercator - 1569
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North America - Berry & Sanson - 1680
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E308 - Images for Hist23 Maps: Past, Present & Future
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A new map of the north parts of America - Herman Moll - 1732
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London Underground Map - 1908
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London Underground - 1933 - Harry Beck
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The Minard Map of Napolean's March - 1869
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Florence NightingaleDUPLICATED
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I Left My Heart(s) In San Francisco - Miriam Sweeney - 2023
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Maps for the Blind - Lighthouse - 2025
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Ulm Ptolemy - 1482
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[ 2025-09-04 16:10:35 ]
Image 1 of 38 | e717 | i38153 | 1024x1024px
It all began when I was about 12 years old, on a canoe trip in Northern Minnesota, with four other boys my age and a counselor about 18, who didn't know how to read a map and got our group horribly lost.
We spent a miserable night in a downpour, under our canoes, on wet and muddy ground. And I resolved that night that I would always the be the navigator and that I would never get lost again.
Antique maps are like supercharged nuggets of information.
Hendrik Hondius - 1630
One of my all-time favorite maps, by Hendrik Hondius, in 1630, during the Dutch Golden Age, when the world was not yet fully discovered and the conventional wisdom was that California was an island. It’s a map, and a piece of art and a statement about the importance of science in a world that had previously been dominated by religion and tradition.
Hendrik Hondius (1573 - 1650) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, cartographer and publisher. This wonderful and very detailed map was first published around 1630, in his famous atlas Atlantis Maioris. It was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia. The map is within decorative border, with portraits of Julius Caesar, Ptolomey, Gerhard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius and tableaus depicting the 4 elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Terra Incognita Maps
Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula is a map of the world created by Hendrik Hondius in 1630, and published the following year at Amsterdam, in the atlas Atlantis Maioris Appendix. Illustrations of the four elements of fire, air, water, and land are included. In the four corners, there are portraits of Julius Caesar, Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers, Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius, the father of Hendrik.[39] Among its claims to notability is the fact that it was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia, the only previous map to do so being Hessel Gerritsz' 1627 Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"), which was not widely distributed or recognised. The Australian coastline shown is part of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, discovered by Jan Carstensz in 1623. Curiously, the map does not show the west coast features shown in Gerritsz' Caert. Wikipedia
When you dive into maps, questions (and answers) immediately abound.
What is this? And you find it is the mapmaker, in 1544, trying to show what Verrazano had told him, that from the Outer Banks of North Caroline he was looking at the Pacific Ocean, but really it was just the Pimlico Sound.
i36727
i36727
This map was a part of Munster’s atlas Cosmographia, published in 1544..….
“His Cosmographia of 1544 was the earliest German-language description of the world...The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular works of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the fascinating woodcuts...in addition to including the first to introduce "separate maps for each of the four continents known then-- America, Africa, Asia and Europe." It was most important in reviving geography in 16th century Europe. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death...He died at Basel of the plague in 1552.” wikipedia.org
"Excellent example of the earliest separate map of the entire Western Hemisphere. This was also the earliest map to refer to the Pacific Ocean (along with Munster's world map) by a variant of its present name, Mare pacificum. It was one of earliest acquirable maps to show Japan prominently, which is depicted as a large single island called Zipangri (after Polo) just off the coasts of California and Mexico. The depiction of North America is dominated by one of the most dramatic geographic misconceptions to be found on early maps--the so-called Verrazanean Sea. On the map, the Pacific Ocean cuts deeply into North America so that there is only a narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This resulted from the voyage of Verrazano, who mistook the waters to the west of the Outer Banks, the long barrier islands outlining the North Carolina coast, as the Pacific Ocean. The division of the New World between Spain and Portugal is recognized on the map by the flag of Castile planted in Puerto Rico, here called Sciana.”Martaya Lan
Or what's the story behind the word "America" on this 1507 map? And you find that this map was the first to use the word America because even in 1507 Columbus continued to insist he had found the East Indies while Amerigo Vespucci, the second explorer to get to America, believed it was a new land.
The history of San Francisco begins with the history of the Americas coming into focus. This 1507 map by Waldseemueller shows great detail about Europe, but a lot less about North and South America. It also is the first map that ever showed the word “America.”
i36724
i36724
i36725
i36725
“In 2003, the Library of Congress bought Martin Waldseemüller’s world map for a world record $10 million dollars, because it is the first map to name America and show the Pacific. Widely regarded as ‘America’s birth certificate’, the map was believed lost until found by a Jesuit priest in a castle in Germany in 1900, where it remained 2003, when the library persuaded its owner, a German count, to sell it. Made by Waldseemüller and a team of scholars in Germany in 1507, its distinctive bulb-shaped projection reflects their attempt to keep up with the extraordinary period of rapid discoveries made by the Spanish and Portuguese from the late fifteenth century, including landfalls in southern Africa, India, Asia, and of course, the Americas. At the top of the map are Ptolemy (left) and Amerigo Vespucci (right), whose voyages proved conclusively that America was a separate continent, disproving Columbus’ belief that he had landed in Asia. It is a map that remains full of mysteries: how did Waldseemüller know about the Pacific six years before any European discovered it?” Time.com 2013
Or, "What kind of map is this?" And you find it is a mappa mundi from the 13th century, depicting items of faith and place. You can see Jesus, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, as well as Jerusalem and the Red Sea.
From the late 13th century, this is the Psalter Map, because it was found a Psalter, which is book of psalms. This map is called a mappa mundi, which historian Felicitas Schmieder refers to as "Geographies of Salvation" as they report the narrative of Christ's interaction with our world. The map includes Jerusalem, the Garden of Eden, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, Gog and Magog, as well as a section of monstrous races.
The Psalter Map is a one of the most famous examples of a midieval mappa mundi. It was likely part of a psalm or prayer book. I love it because it is only marginally geographic and instead speaks to symbols of faith and fear. It has Jerusalem in the center and the Garden of Eden. It also a section on the right of fantastic beasts from other lands.
“The Psalter map is an English map from the thirteenth century that includes much information within it's small area Like many medieval maps, this world map subjectively presents Jerusalem, as enlarged and at the center, as Jesus overlooks the world. The map also contains many indicators of the materiality of the Middle Ages, including buildings, boats, "monstrous" human races (along the right-hand side) and the wind. Thus, the map acts as a record of how people experienced the world during this time period.” History Fine Prints (on etsy)
“Psalter World Map is the name historiography gave to a medieval world map that has been found in a psalter. This mappa mundi is now conserved at the British Library in London. The small map (c. 9.5 cm or 3.7 in high) shows a lot of detail. It was written around 1260; the author is unknown. According to historian Anna-Dorothee von den Brincken, it looks like a small version of the Ebstorf Map from Northern Germany. It is a typical mappa mundi that does not only show the geographical and historical knowledge, but also puts it into the frame of salvation history. Jesus Christ appears in the East (i.e. "above"), as the maps of Christian Middle Ages have East above, not North, giving a blessing with his right hand.” wikipedia
“A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.” wikipedia
1904 by August Chevalier, a French-born lithographer and cartographer. San Francisco is a city on the rise. Gold and silver have propelled the boom. Big buildings downtown, and, to the west, parks & cemeteries, and, further west, the Sutro Baths, the Cliff House and a railroad to get you there.
“A tourist map, pre-earthquake, with great detail of sights, structures, monuments and land contours. Was a fold-out map in a larger 32-page book on San Francisco.” Tom Paper “Important and rare pre-earth-quake San Francisco town plan. Covering from the "Sunset District" and the Blue Mountain, up to the Golden Gate and the northern shore of the city ("being filled") this is a very fine folding map, complete with its original guide. This colour lithographed plan has nice architectural detail for the key buildings. Including : Cliff House, the U.S. Mint, City Hall, the S.F. Examiner building, Wells Fargo, the Institute of Art and the huge Ferry Building.” swaen.com
Then you realize that not everything on a map is true, like the "Great Southern Continent Below," shown on this 1570 map. The ancient Greeks had been the first to believe there must be a large Southern Continent to counterbalance the Northern Hemisphere's landmass.
Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 “Typus Orbis Terrarum” is the first modern world map published in an atlas. Centered on the Atlantic, it shows a blend of recent exploration and myth, most notably the unknown southern continent, an idea dating back to ancient Greece.
Comments by Steve Hanon
“Ortelius' book of maps, first published in 1570, is considered the first modern world atlas. It was the first time that a set of maps, contemporary to the date of publication, was designed, drawn, and engraved with the intention of publishing them in a bound volume. Ortelius did not refer to his publication as an "atlas," as we know it today. Rather he entitled it "Theater of the World," implying not only that the entire known world could be viewed in this one book, but that the Earth was a stage on which human actions unfolded. Although most of the maps in this book pertain to European countries and provinces, it can be considered a world atlas because it also includes a map of the world (displayed here), as well as one map for each of the four continents. The featured map is from the second state and was published c.1578 and is similar to the first state map, but with a few corrections. It is one of the most recognized maps from the Age of Discovery. This version includes the mythical Great Northern Passage, an irregular "bulge" on the west side of South America and the mythical Great Southern Continent, "Terra Australis Ingognita," roughly in the place of Antartica before its discovery. Most of North America is still based on conjecture and mythology, though he does credit Columbus for its discovery.” Steve Hanon, themapmaven.com
First published in 1595, based on a world map published in 1569, by Gerardus Mercator, famous for the Mercator projection. Shows Greenland, Iceland, and the mythical island of Frisland. California is identified as a Spanish territory, far to the north of its usual location. The Biblical land of Gog, usually associated with Tartary, is shown in Asia, just across the Strait of Anian. Inset maps show the Faeroe Isles, the Shetland Isles, and Frisland.
Mercator | 1569 world map Modern climate scientists are looking hard at historic Arctic maps. As winter sea ice shrinks and cracks appear, they try to understand the reasons for these changes, and determine what we should expect in the future. Centuries ago, though, when people tried to map the Arctic, they weren't too concerned with what was happening to it, they just wanted to know what the heck was up there. And, if they didn't know, they pretty much made it up. Such was the case with the first known map of the Arctic: the Septentrionalium Terrarum, which is filled with magnetic stones, strange whirlpools, and other colorful guesses. The map's creator, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, is best known for the "Mercator projection," the now-famed method of taking the curved lines of the Earth and transforming them into straight ones that can be used on a flat map. The Mercator projection was invented for sailors, who, thanks to its design, could use it to plot a straight-line course from their point of origin to their destination. In 1569, Mercator came out with a map of the world based on this principal. Etsy
This is the second edition of Gerard Mercator's map of the North Pole or Arctic, one of the great cartographer's most interesting and important maps. Mercator's Arctic projection has its roots in his magnificent 1569 wall map of the world in which Mercator first introduces his revolutionary projection. As regards the Arctic, the difficulty with the Mercator Projection is that to accurately depict the Polar Regions, his map would have to be infinitely tall. Mercator compensated for this by including a polar projection, very similar to the map shown here, in the lower-left hand corner of his great map. This may rightly be considered to be the world's first specific map of the North Pole. Mercator later reissued this map in an expanded format for his 1595 atlas. Following a number of important expeditions to the Arctic in subsequent 10 years, Mercator's successor Jodocus Hondius reissued the original 1595 map with a number of revolutionary and highly significant changes. Geographicus
Or one of the greatest myths of all, California as an Island, which was standard on European maps for about a century, beginning in 1622.
North America, William Berry and Nicholas Sanson, published in 1680. This map is unique for showing vast spaces as blanks, for parts that were unknown, while also confidently displaying other parts that had been discovered. That confidence was blatantly unfounded and speculative in its depiction of California as an island.
“William Berry (1671-1708) was a London bookseller and engraver who produced a series of maps and geographies. In the title to this map of North America he attributes indebtedness to the Nicholas Sanson family. In fact, it is based on the Sanson/Jaillot map of 1674 with the Strait of Anian repositioned. The territory claimed by the English was expanded from the French sources. This remains a large format map in the French tradition, published in London by a cartographer whose best known atlas was referred to as the “English Sanson”.” arkway.com
This British map from 1886 shows its world domination, accentuating its land mass with a Mercator projection and showing of all of its trade routes and the various peoples it ruled.
This is the revolutionary design made by Harry Beck, an electrical engineer, in 1933. It strips out geographical accuracy in favor of what really matters: "Where is the next stop?"
You might even ask yourself, "What is a map?" And if, like Harry Beck, you take away the need for geographical accuracy, you find yourself in the world of data visualizations.
And then you discover this amazing depiction of Napolean's ill-fated 1812 Moscow campaign, seeing the tan line, from left to right, of the declining number of Napolean's troops on the way to Moscow...and the black line showing the decimation of his army in retreat.
Minard's 1869 chart showing the number of men in Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign army, their movements, as well as the temperature they encountered on the return path. Lithograph, 62 × 30 cm
You might also discover that Florence Nightingale was not just a famous nurse. She also made revolutionary data visualizations, like this one from 1856, showing that deaths from preventable diseases (in blue) far outnumbered deaths from war (in red) or other (in black).
"Florence Nightingale worked closely with medical statistician William Farr to create a series of analytic arguments for better sanitation in the British Army. The most famous graphic from their collaboration is a colorful rose diagram, referred to by Nightingale as “wedges.” It is part of a set of three polar area charts which were originally printed in a confidential 1858 report presented to the Secretary of State for War titled “Notes on the Health of the British Army.” Popular author Harriet Martineau offered to help Nightingale publicize the findings of her report. The product of their collaboration was “England and Her Soldiers,” which includes a set of the diagrams specially printed by Nightingale just for the book." (RJ Andrews, 2020). See also RJ Andrews overview of Nightingale's graphics at https://infowetrust…
When you are a map nerd, you get questions like "What's your favorite map?" and "What was the first map ever made?"
For me, the answer to each question is the same, this map made in Ulm, Germany, in 1482AD. It is a map from a book written by Ptolemy in about 170AD. When the Roman empire fell, a copy somehow made its way to Bagdad, where it was translated in about 800AD into Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. In about 1400AD, a copy of that book in Arabic made its way back to Europe, where it became the basis of this map.
It reminds me of how we are all connected, across both generations and cultures.
It all began when I was about 12 years old, on a canoe trip in Northern Minnesota, with four other boys my age and a counselor about 18, who didn't know how to read a map and got our group horribly lost.
We spent a miserable night in a downpour, under our canoes, on wet and muddy ground. And I resolved that night that I would always the be the navigator and that I would never get lost again.
Antique maps are like supercharged nuggets of information.
Hendrik Hondius - 1630
One of my all-time favorite maps, by Hendrik Hondius, in 1630, during the Dutch Golden Age, when the world was not yet fully discovered and the conventional wisdom was that California was an island. It’s a map, and a piece of art and a statement about the importance of science in a world that had previously been dominated by religion and tradition.
Hendrik Hondius (1573 - 1650) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, cartographer and publisher. This wonderful and very detailed map was first published around 1630, in his famous atlas Atlantis Maioris. It was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia. The map is within decorative border, with portraits of Julius Caesar, Ptolomey, Gerhard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius and tableaus depicting the 4 elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Terra Incognita Maps
Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula is a map of the world created by Hendrik Hondius in 1630, and published the following year at Amsterdam, in the atlas Atlantis Maioris Appendix. Illustrations of the four elements of fire, air, water, and land are included. In the four corners, there are portraits of Julius Caesar, Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers, Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius, the father of Hendrik.[39] Among its claims to notability is the fact that it was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia, the only previous map to do so being Hessel Gerritsz' 1627 Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"), which was not widely distributed or recognised. The Australian coastline shown is part of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, discovered by Jan Carstensz in 1623. Curiously, the map does not show the west coast features shown in Gerritsz' Caert. Wikipedia
When you dive into maps, questions (and answers) immediately abound.
What is this? And you find it is the mapmaker, in 1544, trying to show what Verrazano had told him, that from the Outer Banks of North Caroline he was looking at the Pacific Ocean, but really it was just the Pimlico Sound.
i36727
i36727
This map was a part of Munster’s atlas Cosmographia, published in 1544..….
“His Cosmographia of 1544 was the earliest German-language description of the world...The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular works of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the fascinating woodcuts...in addition to including the first to introduce "separate maps for each of the four continents known then-- America, Africa, Asia and Europe." It was most important in reviving geography in 16th century Europe. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death...He died at Basel of the plague in 1552.” wikipedia.org
"Excellent example of the earliest separate map of the entire Western Hemisphere. This was also the earliest map to refer to the Pacific Ocean (along with Munster's world map) by a variant of its present name, Mare pacificum. It was one of earliest acquirable maps to show Japan prominently, which is depicted as a large single island called Zipangri (after Polo) just off the coasts of California and Mexico. The depiction of North America is dominated by one of the most dramatic geographic misconceptions to be found on early maps--the so-called Verrazanean Sea. On the map, the Pacific Ocean cuts deeply into North America so that there is only a narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This resulted from the voyage of Verrazano, who mistook the waters to the west of the Outer Banks, the long barrier islands outlining the North Carolina coast, as the Pacific Ocean. The division of the New World between Spain and Portugal is recognized on the map by the flag of Castile planted in Puerto Rico, here called Sciana.”Martaya Lan
Or what's the story behind the word "America" on this 1507 map? And you find that this map was the first to use the word America because even in 1507 Columbus continued to insist he had found the East Indies while Amerigo Vespucci, the second explorer to get to America, believed it was a new land.
The history of San Francisco begins with the history of the Americas coming into focus. This 1507 map by Waldseemueller shows great detail about Europe, but a lot less about North and South America. It also is the first map that ever showed the word “America.”
i36724
i36724
i36725
i36725
“In 2003, the Library of Congress bought Martin Waldseemüller’s world map for a world record $10 million dollars, because it is the first map to name America and show the Pacific. Widely regarded as ‘America’s birth certificate’, the map was believed lost until found by a Jesuit priest in a castle in Germany in 1900, where it remained 2003, when the library persuaded its owner, a German count, to sell it. Made by Waldseemüller and a team of scholars in Germany in 1507, its distinctive bulb-shaped projection reflects their attempt to keep up with the extraordinary period of rapid discoveries made by the Spanish and Portuguese from the late fifteenth century, including landfalls in southern Africa, India, Asia, and of course, the Americas. At the top of the map are Ptolemy (left) and Amerigo Vespucci (right), whose voyages proved conclusively that America was a separate continent, disproving Columbus’ belief that he had landed in Asia. It is a map that remains full of mysteries: how did Waldseemüller know about the Pacific six years before any European discovered it?” Time.com 2013
Or, "What kind of map is this?" And you find it is a mappa mundi from the 13th century, depicting items of faith and place. You can see Jesus, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, as well as Jerusalem and the Red Sea.
From the late 13th century, this is the Psalter Map, because it was found a Psalter, which is book of psalms. This map is called a mappa mundi, which historian Felicitas Schmieder refers to as "Geographies of Salvation" as they report the narrative of Christ's interaction with our world. The map includes Jerusalem, the Garden of Eden, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, Gog and Magog, as well as a section of monstrous races.
The Psalter Map is a one of the most famous examples of a midieval mappa mundi. It was likely part of a psalm or prayer book. I love it because it is only marginally geographic and instead speaks to symbols of faith and fear. It has Jerusalem in the center and the Garden of Eden. It also a section on the right of fantastic beasts from other lands.
“The Psalter map is an English map from the thirteenth century that includes much information within it's small area Like many medieval maps, this world map subjectively presents Jerusalem, as enlarged and at the center, as Jesus overlooks the world. The map also contains many indicators of the materiality of the Middle Ages, including buildings, boats, "monstrous" human races (along the right-hand side) and the wind. Thus, the map acts as a record of how people experienced the world during this time period.” History Fine Prints (on etsy)
“Psalter World Map is the name historiography gave to a medieval world map that has been found in a psalter. This mappa mundi is now conserved at the British Library in London. The small map (c. 9.5 cm or 3.7 in high) shows a lot of detail. It was written around 1260; the author is unknown. According to historian Anna-Dorothee von den Brincken, it looks like a small version of the Ebstorf Map from Northern Germany. It is a typical mappa mundi that does not only show the geographical and historical knowledge, but also puts it into the frame of salvation history. Jesus Christ appears in the East (i.e. "above"), as the maps of Christian Middle Ages have East above, not North, giving a blessing with his right hand.” wikipedia
“A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.” wikipedia
1904 by August Chevalier, a French-born lithographer and cartographer. San Francisco is a city on the rise. Gold and silver have propelled the boom. Big buildings downtown, and, to the west, parks & cemeteries, and, further west, the Sutro Baths, the Cliff House and a railroad to get you there.
“A tourist map, pre-earthquake, with great detail of sights, structures, monuments and land contours. Was a fold-out map in a larger 32-page book on San Francisco.” Tom Paper “Important and rare pre-earth-quake San Francisco town plan. Covering from the "Sunset District" and the Blue Mountain, up to the Golden Gate and the northern shore of the city ("being filled") this is a very fine folding map, complete with its original guide. This colour lithographed plan has nice architectural detail for the key buildings. Including : Cliff House, the U.S. Mint, City Hall, the S.F. Examiner building, Wells Fargo, the Institute of Art and the huge Ferry Building.” swaen.com
Then you realize that not everything on a map is true, like the "Great Southern Continent Below," shown on this 1570 map. The ancient Greeks had been the first to believe there must be a large Southern Continent to counterbalance the Northern Hemisphere's landmass.
Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 “Typus Orbis Terrarum” is the first modern world map published in an atlas. Centered on the Atlantic, it shows a blend of recent exploration and myth, most notably the unknown southern continent, an idea dating back to ancient Greece.
Comments by Steve Hanon
“Ortelius' book of maps, first published in 1570, is considered the first modern world atlas. It was the first time that a set of maps, contemporary to the date of publication, was designed, drawn, and engraved with the intention of publishing them in a bound volume. Ortelius did not refer to his publication as an "atlas," as we know it today. Rather he entitled it "Theater of the World," implying not only that the entire known world could be viewed in this one book, but that the Earth was a stage on which human actions unfolded. Although most of the maps in this book pertain to European countries and provinces, it can be considered a world atlas because it also includes a map of the world (displayed here), as well as one map for each of the four continents. The featured map is from the second state and was published c.1578 and is similar to the first state map, but with a few corrections. It is one of the most recognized maps from the Age of Discovery. This version includes the mythical Great Northern Passage, an irregular "bulge" on the west side of South America and the mythical Great Southern Continent, "Terra Australis Ingognita," roughly in the place of Antartica before its discovery. Most of North America is still based on conjecture and mythology, though he does credit Columbus for its discovery.” Steve Hanon, themapmaven.com
First published in 1595, based on a world map published in 1569, by Gerardus Mercator, famous for the Mercator projection. Shows Greenland, Iceland, and the mythical island of Frisland. California is identified as a Spanish territory, far to the north of its usual location. The Biblical land of Gog, usually associated with Tartary, is shown in Asia, just across the Strait of Anian. Inset maps show the Faeroe Isles, the Shetland Isles, and Frisland.
Mercator | 1569 world map Modern climate scientists are looking hard at historic Arctic maps. As winter sea ice shrinks and cracks appear, they try to understand the reasons for these changes, and determine what we should expect in the future. Centuries ago, though, when people tried to map the Arctic, they weren't too concerned with what was happening to it, they just wanted to know what the heck was up there. And, if they didn't know, they pretty much made it up. Such was the case with the first known map of the Arctic: the Septentrionalium Terrarum, which is filled with magnetic stones, strange whirlpools, and other colorful guesses. The map's creator, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, is best known for the "Mercator projection," the now-famed method of taking the curved lines of the Earth and transforming them into straight ones that can be used on a flat map. The Mercator projection was invented for sailors, who, thanks to its design, could use it to plot a straight-line course from their point of origin to their destination. In 1569, Mercator came out with a map of the world based on this principal. Etsy
This is the second edition of Gerard Mercator's map of the North Pole or Arctic, one of the great cartographer's most interesting and important maps. Mercator's Arctic projection has its roots in his magnificent 1569 wall map of the world in which Mercator first introduces his revolutionary projection. As regards the Arctic, the difficulty with the Mercator Projection is that to accurately depict the Polar Regions, his map would have to be infinitely tall. Mercator compensated for this by including a polar projection, very similar to the map shown here, in the lower-left hand corner of his great map. This may rightly be considered to be the world's first specific map of the North Pole. Mercator later reissued this map in an expanded format for his 1595 atlas. Following a number of important expeditions to the Arctic in subsequent 10 years, Mercator's successor Jodocus Hondius reissued the original 1595 map with a number of revolutionary and highly significant changes. Geographicus
Or one of the greatest myths of all, California as an Island, which was standard on European maps for about a century, beginning in 1622.
North America, William Berry and Nicholas Sanson, published in 1680. This map is unique for showing vast spaces as blanks, for parts that were unknown, while also confidently displaying other parts that had been discovered. That confidence was blatantly unfounded and speculative in its depiction of California as an island.
“William Berry (1671-1708) was a London bookseller and engraver who produced a series of maps and geographies. In the title to this map of North America he attributes indebtedness to the Nicholas Sanson family. In fact, it is based on the Sanson/Jaillot map of 1674 with the Strait of Anian repositioned. The territory claimed by the English was expanded from the French sources. This remains a large format map in the French tradition, published in London by a cartographer whose best known atlas was referred to as the “English Sanson”.” arkway.com
This British map from 1886 shows its world domination, accentuating its land mass with a Mercator projection and showing of all of its trade routes and the various peoples it ruled.
This is the revolutionary design made by Harry Beck, an electrical engineer, in 1933. It strips out geographical accuracy in favor of what really matters: "Where is the next stop?"
You might even ask yourself, "What is a map?" And if, like Harry Beck, you take away the need for geographical accuracy, you find yourself in the world of data visualizations.
And then you discover this amazing depiction of Napolean's ill-fated 1812 Moscow campaign, seeing the tan line, from left to right, of the declining number of Napolean's troops on the way to Moscow...and the black line showing the decimation of his army in retreat.
Minard's 1869 chart showing the number of men in Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign army, their movements, as well as the temperature they encountered on the return path. Lithograph, 62 × 30 cm
You might also discover that Florence Nightingale was not just a famous nurse. She also made revolutionary data visualizations, like this one from 1856, showing that deaths from preventable diseases (in blue) far outnumbered deaths from war (in red) or other (in black).
"Florence Nightingale worked closely with medical statistician William Farr to create a series of analytic arguments for better sanitation in the British Army. The most famous graphic from their collaboration is a colorful rose diagram, referred to by Nightingale as “wedges.” It is part of a set of three polar area charts which were originally printed in a confidential 1858 report presented to the Secretary of State for War titled “Notes on the Health of the British Army.” Popular author Harriet Martineau offered to help Nightingale publicize the findings of her report. The product of their collaboration was “England and Her Soldiers,” which includes a set of the diagrams specially printed by Nightingale just for the book." (RJ Andrews, 2020). See also RJ Andrews overview of Nightingale's graphics at https://infowetrust…
When you are a map nerd, you get questions like "What's your favorite map?" and "What was the first map ever made?"
For me, the answer to each question is the same, this map made in Ulm, Germany, in 1482AD. It is a map from a book written by Ptolemy in about 170AD. When the Roman empire fell, a copy somehow made its way to Bagdad, where it was translated in about 800AD into Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. In about 1400AD, a copy of that book in Arabic made its way back to Europe, where it became the basis of this map.
It reminds me of how we are all connected, across both generations and cultures.
It all began when I was about 12 years old, on a summer camp canoe trip in Northern Minnesota, with a counselor who didn't know how to read a map and got our group horribly lost.
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We spent a miserable night in a downpour under our canoes. And I resolved that I would always the be the navigator and that I would never get lost again.
Thus began my love affair with maps. I was the navigator on all of my subsequent canoe trips.
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Including a 42-day trip to the Arctic when I was 18.
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That's me in the red rectangle.
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And a 55-day expedition across the Great Lakes in 1988.
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About ten years ago, I discovered the world of antique maps.
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Antique maps are like supercharged nuggets of information.
Hendrik Hondius - 1630
One of my all-time favorite maps, by Hendrik Hondius, in 1630, during the Dutch Golden Age, when the world was not yet fully discovered and the conventional wisdom was that California was an island. It’s a map, and a piece of art and a statement about the importance of science in a world that had previously been dominated by religion and tradition.
Hendrik Hondius (1573 - 1650) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, cartographer and publisher. This wonderful and very detailed map was first published around 1630, in his famous atlas Atlantis Maioris. It was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia. The map is within decorative border, with portraits of Julius Caesar, Ptolomey, Gerhard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius and tableaus depicting the 4 elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Terra Incognita Maps
Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula is a map of the world created by Hendrik Hondius in 1630, and published the following year at Amsterdam, in the atlas Atlantis Maioris Appendix. Illustrations of the four elements of fire, air, water, and land are included. In the four corners, there are portraits of Julius Caesar, Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers, Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius, the father of Hendrik.[39] Among its claims to notability is the fact that it was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia, the only previous map to do so being Hessel Gerritsz' 1627 Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Chart of the Land of Eendracht"), which was not widely distributed or recognised. The Australian coastline shown is part of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, discovered by Jan Carstensz in 1623. Curiously, the map does not show the west coast features shown in Gerritsz' Caert. Wikipedia
And building a website called Pixeum that now houses 35,000 images of maps and art.
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Maps are like bullion for the brain. I want to show you what it’s like to take a journey into maps.
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When you dive into maps, questions (and answers) immediately abound.
Like, "What is this?" And you find it is the 1544 depiction of an explorer who, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, thought he was looking at the Pacific Ocean, but really it was just the Pimlico Sound.
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Or what's the story behind "America" being shown for the first time on this 1507 map? And you find that it's because Columbus had insisted he had found the East Indies.
…while Amerigo Vespucci said he had discovered a new land.
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Or, "What are the straight lines all over this map from 1375?" And you find out they are lines of constant nautical bearing.
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Or "Who is this character?" And you find out it's Mansa Musa, the Mali ruler who made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324.
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Or, "What kind of map is this?" And you find it is a mappa mundi from the 13th century, a map of both faith and place. You can see Jesus on top and Adam and Eve on the bottom.
From the late 13th century, this is the Psalter Map, because it was found a Psalter, which is book of psalms. This map is called a mappa mundi, which historian Felicitas Schmieder refers to as "Geographies of Salvation" as they report the narrative of Christ's interaction with our world. The map includes Jerusalem, the Garden of Eden, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, Gog and Magog, as well as a section of monstrous races.
The Psalter Map is a one of the most famous examples of a midieval mappa mundi. It was likely part of a psalm or prayer book. I love it because it is only marginally geographic and instead speaks to symbols of faith and fear. It has Jerusalem in the center and the Garden of Eden. It also a section on the right of fantastic beasts from other lands.
“The Psalter map is an English map from the thirteenth century that includes much information within it's small area Like many medieval maps, this world map subjectively presents Jerusalem, as enlarged and at the center, as Jesus overlooks the world. The map also contains many indicators of the materiality of the Middle Ages, including buildings, boats, "monstrous" human races (along the right-hand side) and the wind. Thus, the map acts as a record of how people experienced the world during this time period.” History Fine Prints (on etsy)
“Psalter World Map is the name historiography gave to a medieval world map that has been found in a psalter. This mappa mundi is now conserved at the British Library in London. The small map (c. 9.5 cm or 3.7 in high) shows a lot of detail. It was written around 1260; the author is unknown. According to historian Anna-Dorothee von den Brincken, it looks like a small version of the Ebstorf Map from Northern Germany. It is a typical mappa mundi that does not only show the geographical and historical knowledge, but also puts it into the frame of salvation history. Jesus Christ appears in the East (i.e. "above"), as the maps of Christian Middle Ages have East above, not North, giving a blessing with his right hand.” wikipedia
“A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. Many Psalters were richly illuminated and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.” wikipedia
Then you realize that not everything on a map is true, like the "Great Southern Continent Below," shown on this 1570 map, reflecting an ancient Greek myth that there must be a large Southern Continent to counterbalance the landmass of the Northern Hemisphere.
Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 “Typus Orbis Terrarum” is the first modern world map published in an atlas. Centered on the Atlantic, it shows a blend of recent exploration and myth, most notably the unknown southern continent, an idea dating back to ancient Greece.
“Ortelius' book of maps, first published in 1570, is considered the first modern world atlas. It was the first time that a set of maps, contemporary to the date of publication, was designed, drawn, and engraved with the intention of publishing them in a bound volume. Ortelius did not refer to his publication as an "atlas," as we know it today. Rather he entitled it "Theater of the World," implying not only that the entire known world could be viewed in this one book, but that the Earth was a stage on which human actions unfolded. Although most of the maps in this book pertain to European countries and provinces, it can be considered a world atlas because it also includes a map of the world (displayed here), as well as one map for each of the four continents. The featured map is from the second state and was published c.1578 and is similar to the first state map, but with a few corrections. It is one of the most recognized maps from the Age of Discovery. This version includes the mythical Great Northern Passage, an irregular "bulge" on the west side of South America and the mythical Great Southern Continent, "Terra Australis Ingognita," roughly in the place of Antartica before its discovery. Most of North America is still based on conjecture and mythology, though he does credit Columbus for its discovery.” Steve Hanon, themapmaven.com
First published in 1595, based on a world map published in 1569, by Gerardus Mercator, famous for the Mercator projection. Shows Greenland, Iceland, and the mythical island of Frisland. California is identified as a Spanish territory, far to the north of its usual location. The Biblical land of Gog, usually associated with Tartary, is shown in Asia, just across the Strait of Anian. Inset maps show the Faeroe Isles, the Shetland Isles, and Frisland.
Mercator | 1569 world map Modern climate scientists are looking hard at historic Arctic maps. As winter sea ice shrinks and cracks appear, they try to understand the reasons for these changes, and determine what we should expect in the future. Centuries ago, though, when people tried to map the Arctic, they weren't too concerned with what was happening to it, they just wanted to know what the heck was up there. And, if they didn't know, they pretty much made it up. Such was the case with the first known map of the Arctic: the Septentrionalium Terrarum, which is filled with magnetic stones, strange whirlpools, and other colorful guesses. The map's creator, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, is best known for the "Mercator projection," the now-famed method of taking the curved lines of the Earth and transforming them into straight ones that can be used on a flat map. The Mercator projection was invented for sailors, who, thanks to its design, could use it to plot a straight-line course from their point of origin to their destination. In 1569, Mercator came out with a map of the world based on this principal. Etsy
This is the second edition of Gerard Mercator's map of the North Pole or Arctic, one of the great cartographer's most interesting and important maps. Mercator's Arctic projection has its roots in his magnificent 1569 wall map of the world in which Mercator first introduces his revolutionary projection. As regards the Arctic, the difficulty with the Mercator Projection is that to accurately depict the Polar Regions, his map would have to be infinitely tall. Mercator compensated for this by including a polar projection, very similar to the map shown here, in the lower-left hand corner of his great map. This may rightly be considered to be the world's first specific map of the North Pole. Mercator later reissued this map in an expanded format for his 1595 atlas. Following a number of important expeditions to the Arctic in subsequent 10 years, Mercator's successor Jodocus Hondius reissued the original 1595 map with a number of revolutionary and highly significant changes. Geographicus
Or one of the greatest cartographic myths of all, California as an Island, which was standard on European maps from about 1620 to 1720.
North America, William Berry and Nicholas Sanson, published in 1680. This map is unique for showing vast spaces as blanks, for parts that were unknown, while also confidently displaying other parts that had been discovered. That confidence was blatantly unfounded and speculative in its depiction of California as an island.
“William Berry (1671-1708) was a London bookseller and engraver who produced a series of maps and geographies. In the title to this map of North America he attributes indebtedness to the Nicholas Sanson family. In fact, it is based on the Sanson/Jaillot map of 1674 with the Strait of Anian repositioned. The territory claimed by the English was expanded from the French sources. This remains a large format map in the French tradition, published in London by a cartographer whose best known atlas was referred to as the “English Sanson”.” arkway.com
You might even ask yourself, "What is a map?" And if you take away the need for geographical accuracy, you find yourself in the world of data visualizations.
And then you discover this map of Napolean's declining troop population, in tan, on their way to Moscow in 1812, and, in black, on their retreat.
Minard's 1869 chart showing the number of men in Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign army, their movements, as well as the temperature they encountered on the return path. Lithograph, 62 × 30 cm
"Florence Nightingale worked closely with medical statistician William Farr to create a series of analytic arguments for better sanitation in the British Army. The most famous graphic from their collaboration is a colorful rose diagram, referred to by Nightingale as “wedges.” It is part of a set of three polar area charts which were originally printed in a confidential 1858 report presented to the Secretary of State for War titled “Notes on the Health of the British Army.” Popular author Harriet Martineau offered to help Nightingale publicize the findings of her report. The product of their collaboration was “England and Her Soldiers,” which includes a set of the diagrams specially printed by Nightingale just for the book." (RJ Andrews, 2020). See also RJ Andrews overview of Nightingale's graphics at https://infowetrust…
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