Firstly, it is worth noting that this map is not oriented in the way that maps of Washington normally are (with north being up). The city was a planned city, designed by Pierre L'enfant, and since its inception has nearly always been displayed with north facing upwards. This map is an exception.  

The building centered by the red lines is the U.S. Capitol, which is nearly always centered in maps of Washington, D.C. In this map, the building appears off-center, yet its importance is still highlighted as being the dividing line between the four quadrants of the city. 

Federal buildings, such as the White House here, are outlined in black. Many buildings have a different footprint in this map than they do today; for example, the White House is pictured without the additions of the East and West Wings that flank the main residence now. 

Southeast D.C./Anacostia, which has predominantly been a black neighborhood since its inception, is largely neglected and left off the map. This may reflect an intentional decision that reflects discrimination that is still felt today. 

The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb was federally chartered and later became known as Gallaudet University, which is now a premier institution of higher learning for students with hearing difficulties. The name on the map reflects a poor understanding of physical disabilities at the time. 

The National Mall was underdeveloped reclaimed swampland during this time. Now, these areas are home to the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, and the famous reflecting pool. 

By centering the map around Federal Triangle and highlighting the federal buildings in black, the map emphasizes both the power and centrality of the federal government 

Virginia is largely left off the map; Arlington, my hometown, used to be a part of the Capital until the Civil War. The unique orientation of the map map reflect a desire to exclude Virginia from the map as best as possible. The road network is intentionally cut short, despite other contemporary maps showing those roads extending further. 

This is my high school! 

The current site of many federal buildings, including the Supreme Court, the Rayburn and Longworth House Office Buildings, and a number of Senate support buildings, sit occupied by other structures until the 1930s and 1940s. 

Date of publishing and information on what map this is of

Compass rose detailing direction for those unfamiliar with the area

Yellow indicates wooden buildings (high risk)

Blue indicates stone (medium risk)

Red indicates brick (lowest risk)

Green indicates special buildings

These maps were packed with information - for example, we see that West Hall had many openings and 4 floors

Scaling of the map

Special information included the heat source (steam for Lasell, the oldest still-functioning collegiate gym)

In 1816, natural geographer Alexander Von Humboldt established the term isotherm to  describe a “curve drawn through points on a globe which receive an equal quantity of heat”

Humboldt discovered that isothermal lines were not strictly related to latitude which disputed the prevailing scientific notion of the time.

Humboldt’s isotherm research was withheld until a comprehensive data set from global weather stations was obtained, and then published by Heinrich Bergaus in his Physikalisher Atlas, the first comprehensive physical world atlas.

As for design, this map is in partial color showing isotherm lines throughout the world along with explorers and dates of exploration noted in both hemispheres

Humboldt used data collected at unique locations from readings by thermometers for temperature, barometers for pressure, hygrometers for humidity, and sextants & quadrants for position & angles.

To create global temperature isotherm bars, this map uses averages to depict “lines of equal heat”

The isotherm surrounding the equator is classified as everything between 25 degrees celcius and considered a torrid region.

The temperature pattern we see here is due to the Gulf Stream bringing warm, equatorial waters northwards, thus maintaining moderate Western European temperatures

The Andes mountain range located along the Western South American coast influences isotherms due to the inverse relationship between temperature and elevation

This is a map of Boston from 1838. The coastline looks very different than the modern day, since in the 1800's there were massive land-filling efforts which created more land for the city. Nowadays, the city is 10X larger than its original footprint due to land filling.(some already has been done in this map)

One major area of land reclaiming was the Back Bay neighborhood. In this map it is shown as water- it was a tidal mud flat at the time. This is the neighborhood where I grew up.

Another important area that has changed a lot is East Boston- massive amounts of land was added near this dot, and that is where Logan Airport is nowadays.

The Boston Common already existed at the time, as shown in the map; however, it used to be on the shoreline. The white box to the left of the common is now the Boston Public Garden.

This area of Boston was reclaimed as part of earlier landfilling efforts, allowing for careful street planning. This is why there are grids here, while downtown is less organized.

This is the statehouse- unchanged today.

This is Faneuil Hall, the old marketplace for Boston. Built in 1742, serving as both a marketplace on the first floor and a public meeting hall above. It became famous for its role in hosting protests during the American Revolution. The location remains the same, but it has evolved into a tourist attraction.
 

Bird Island no longer exists- filled in as part of the airport. There are reportedly more than 15 famous pirates buried on the shores.

This is Fort Warren. Construction was not finished until 1861- in this map is has not been finished. Fort Warren defended the harbor in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1861 through the end of World War II, and during the Civil War served as a prison for Confederate officers and government officials. It was permanently decommissioned in 1947,

Another interesting building-Charlestown State Prison. It was close in 1955 for make space to build a highway.

Title: New Discoveries by Russians North of the South Sea in Asia and America, made in Venice in 1776 by Antonio Zatta. The map was created to provide an accurate depiction of the Pacific Northwest region based on the very limited knowledge europeans had at that time. Particularly, it focused on the northwest passage which was an important topic in conversations about exploration of the western americas.

Much of the area on this map was not well known by Europeans, especially northeast Asia and northwest americas, now the eastern coast of Russia and Alaska/northwest Canada. This text says acknowledges that much of the map is conjecture, but says that it is based off of new Spanish and English expeditions that gave insight into this region. In hindsight, many of the voyages and ideas the map was based off of were myths.

Much of Zatta's information about Asia came from Russian expeditions by Vitus Bering. Bering lead multiple expeditions collecting information about the Bering straight and the Kamtchatka peninsula, so these areas of the map are relatively accurate. Bering also ventured to the western coast of the America's near Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, but this region is pretty inaccurate in Zatta's map. 

Relatively accurate depiction of the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay Area due to French exploration and settlement in the region.

The map depicts Alaska as a group of islands with the northwest passage connecting the Pacific to the Hudson Bay and the Atlantic. This portion is based in the Spanish voyage of Bartholomew de Fonte, who had supposedly sailed the region in the 1640s and taken the passage through North America. This story had a great influence on discussions about exploration of the Americas and Asia at the time, but this voyage and De Fonte himself turns out to have been made up by an English magazine in the early 1700s

Fousang was a supposed Chinese colony that was cited in Chinese texts as early as the 5th century. It was described as a land way to the east of china, which many europeans including Zatta guessed could be in North America leading him to include this fictional colony on his map.

The artwork included on this map are speculations of what animals and habitat might be found in the region, which seem to be a somewhat random collection of animals likely based on myths about the new world.

This map (or honestly, more of a chart) is a data representation of the results of all German federal elections to the Reichstag of the German Empire. This spans from the Imperial Reichstag's creation as a result of German unification in 1871, all the way to the last federal election held prior to the First World War in 1912. 

There are two maps of Germany on this chart, in which each single-member electoral constituency used in Reichstag elections is represented by a square. These equally-sized squares are then placed together in the general shape of Germany.

The first map on the left visualizes the results of the inaugural election to the Reichstag held in 1871. Black represents Zentrum, Blue represents the Conservatives, Green represents the National Liberals, Light blue represents the German Reichspartei (later known as the Free Conservatives, which evolved into the People's and National People's parties), Brown represents parties representing minority ethnic groups (denoted on the map as "Parties of Protestors"), Light red represents the Progressive Liberals, and dark red represents the marxist Social Democratic party.

White represents regions claimed by the German Empire that were not eligible to vote in the election. In the case of the 1871 poll, Alsace-Lorraine was not granted suffrage or representation in the Reichstag. The election was held shortly before the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in the full incorporation of Alsace-Lorraine into the German Empire and its participation in subsequent federal elections.

Each map is paired with a legend, indicating the overall data that the map is visualizing.

"Fraktionen" refers to the various parties and political labels used by the mapmaker- "Gewinn" and "Verlust" refer to gains and losses. Since this was the inaugural election- that seemed a bit odd. I initially believed that the gains and losses are in comparison to the 1868 election to the Zollparliament, which was the legislative body of the "Zollverein" customs union that consisted of all members of the Reichstag of the North German Confederation as well as deputies elected to represent the other states party to the Zollverein in Southern Germany. But after inspection with the map from 1912, I believe it is actually a comparison between the number of constituencies in which a party received a plurality in the first round, and the number of seats they won on the second round.

The "In Haupt-wahl" column indicates the number of constituencies in which said party had received the most votes in the first round of voting. The "Mit Stitch-wahl" column indicates the number of members elected from each party, by totalling the number of constituencies in which said party had received the most number of votes in the second round of voting (Their electoral system required a majority of votes to be elected to represent a constituency in the Reichstag, thus a two-round system was used.)

The coloring scheme present in the 1871 visualization largely remains the same in 1912, although white now represents Anti-Semites. What can be shown clearly between 1871 and 1912 is the dramatic rise of the SDP in German politics, winning by far the plurality of seats in the Reichstag (although not a majority). This represented a a breakthrough for the SPD across Germany in the final election of the Empire, solidifying the SPD as the dominant force in German politics and setting the stage for the SPD to lead the German Revolution at the end of the war and establish the German First Republic.

The legend for the 1912 election, while showing the similar trend towards the SPD seen on the map, leaves out an incredibly relevant statistic to the election - that being the national popular vote.

In Imperial Germany, constituencies were not required to have equal populations, or even equal electorates for that matter (considering that Germany had a very restrictive franchise). This resulted in rural constituencies being dramatically overrepresented in the Reichstag, and thus parties favorable to landowners were able to receive more representation in the Reichstag than the support they received among the broader electorate. This worked in reverse as well- workers (or those that managed to have voting rights) had their votes minimized, leading to parties of the left being dramatically underrepresented. The SPD was able to break the institutional barriers to representation by 1912, but was still underrepresented. 

The Social Democrats only won 110 seats out of 397 total. Zentrum, their nearest opposition won 90. That is despite the fact that the SPD won nearly 4.3 million votes, nationwide compared to Zentrum's mere 1.9 million. Nearly every party and faction in the Reichstag in 1912 was overrepresented, the SPD underrepresented. As a result of the malapportionment and playmandering of the electoral boundaries, the SPD (despite being the largest party by voteshare nationwide) was underrepresented in Parliament, which goes against the norm in majoritarian democracies using single-member constituencies such as the UK, where the party receiving the most votes nationwide typically outperforms their voteshare in seatshare (i.e.: Labour in 2024 receiving 33% of the vote and winning 67% of seats.)

The lack of information on popular vote totals represents, whether its deliberate or not, selective decisionmaking to diminish the support of the SPD among the population by not representing popular vote totals.

Saxony represented the biggest shift of any region of Germany towards the Social Democratic Party between 1871 and 1912. While it was the location of 2 of the SPD's original 3 seats in the 1871 Reichstag, it had been predominately represented by the Nat-libs and Conservatives that had dominated German politics. The contrast between the SPD's rise in Saxony and the resilience of the catholic Zentrum party in catholic regions of Germany to the SPD's rise (allowing Zentrum to overtake the conservatives and national liberals to shift into 2nd place in parliament by 1912) represents the degree in which the SPD was uniquely successful in the protestant areas of Germany, whereas in the Catholic regions Zentrum was able to adapt their political strategy to support some degrees of redistributive social and economic policies to mitigate vote-leeching to their left.

By 1912, all but 3 of the seats in the influential Saxony region were represented by Social Democrats.

This roughly translates in English to "No. 220 (52nd number of 1918) of the Weekly People’s War Maps 1914–1918, formerly Weekly War-Theatre Map. — 23 December 1918". This was published later in the war, shortly prior to the German Revolution. This publication mostly published maps of the state of the war- i.e., where the frontlines were, and what army was occupying certain regions. This map represents the nearing end to the war, and a growing inward focus on the internal affairs of Germany necessary to resolve after a Great War defeat.

The Yu Ji Tu (Map of the Tracks of Yu) is one of the earliest and most important surviving Chinese maps. It depicts major rivers, lakes, mountain ranges, and administrative regions of China. Although the map was engraved on a stone stele in 1137 during the Southern Song dynasty, its content is believed to be based on earlier cartographic knowledge from 1080–1093 in the Northern Song dynasty. The map represents the territorial boundaries of China during the Song period, which were smaller than those of modern China.

The Yu Ji Tu is especially famous for its highly precise grid system, one of the earliest known uses of a consistent scale in Chinese cartography. The map is divided into square grids, each measuring 100 li (approximately 31 miles), allowing for relatively accurate measurement of distance and spatial relationships. 

One of the most prominent features on the map is the Yellow River (Huang He), a cradle of Chinese civilization. Many major cities developed along or near this river system, and the map highlights the strategic significance of northern China, including areas around present-day Beijing and Tianjin.

The map also clearly illustrates the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), the longest river in China and a vital artery for trade, agriculture, and transportation. Important cities along the Yangtze—such as Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai—are shown.

Large freshwater lakes such as Dongting Lake and Tai Lake (Taihu) are prominently depicted. These lakes were crucial for flood control, agriculture, and regional economies.

Large freshwater lakes such as Dongting Lake and Tai Lake (Taihu) are prominently depicted. These lakes were crucial for flood control, agriculture, and regional economies.

The map also includes important islands such as Hainan, as Song dynasty is a period marked by expanding sea trade and naval activity.

What stands out the most in this map is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the monstruous shadow of our continents. The dark blue-grey signals abyssal depth, making this serpentine formation look like a whole other world, a negative image of ours.

The rivers, greatly exaggerated for legibility, make the landmasses look pilfered by the encroaching ocean. Post-climate-change Earth?

Greenland is green. 

The Ridge's scar-like appearance evokes a violent, motile geological history.  It looks like a stress because it is; it is a massive crack in the sea floor being stretched apart by the tectonic plates, resulting in lava bubbling up and creating a mountainous crust. 

Also calling back to massive, cohesive motion, these horizontal cuts are called transform faults.  They are cracks formed by the mountainous segments being pulled laterally at different speeds. 

It's interesting that Iceland briefly interrupts the Ridge like a stamp, before it continues north. 

“Wall Map of European Russia
with illustrations of peoples and their crafts

Compiled and published by the former teacher of the Kherson Real School
N. N. Shipov

1908
Kherson

Price: 80 kopeks

The map is approved by the Committee on the 2nd edition of textbooks for lower schools, free reading rooms, and libraries
(Journal of the Ministry of Public Education, 1903, December),
and in the 3rd edition reprinted from the 2nd edition.

Requests should be addressed to the Kherson teacher of geography
Nikolai Nikolaevich Shipov or to bookstores.
At the author’s request, no fewer than 10 copies must be ordered.

Scale: in English inches, 120 versts
(1 inch = 20 versts)

3rd edition, corrected and expanded.”

"Area of European Russia [is] 5,045,500 sq. versts, and the population is 106,000,000, of which:"

• Great Russians: up to 60 million
• Little Russians (Ukrainians): up to 17 million
• White Russians (Belarusians): up to 6 million
• Poles: 5 million
• Finns: 7 million
• Lithuanians: 3 million
• Tatars: 3 million
• Jews: 3 million
• Germans: 2 million
• Other peoples: 6.5 million

The map not only displays geographical features but also serves as an ethnographic record. It lists approximately 250 different nationalities found within the empire, each depicted with their characteristic attire and trades. This feature underscores the map’s dual function as both a geographical and cultural document. 

Each ethnic group is depicted with distinctive clothing and traditional crafts. These illustrations are scattered across the map, visually breaking down the empire into cultural zones. 
 

The map also illustrates the dominant agricultural activities of each region. In Ukraine, wheat cultivation and harvesting are shown as the predominant agricultural practice.

The map shows that grape harvesting and winemaking were prevalent in Georgia.

Animals and natural resources are also illustrated, indicating the economic activities such as agriculture and animal husbandry.

The map also includes religious symbols, such as depictions of the Virgin Mary with Jesus Christ.

In contrast to standard representations of mountains on maps, this map presents mountain ranges in a different way.

 The map also shows industrial infrastructure, such as factories and what was transited.

The map appears to be slightly damaged, as there is a visible dark hole/spot on it.

The Map of Seoul (Doseongdo) is from Gim Jeongho's 1861 atlas titled Complete territorial map of the Great East. It is a depiction of Seoul, focusing on the Jongno district. Something of note is the lack of a title on the actual map.

Sources

Map of Seoul (Doseongdo) 

Palace information 

The Jongno district used to be part of Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon Kingdom. It's known for its many historical sites, including three palaces. The first is Gyeongbokgung, the first palace of the Joseon dynasty, established in 1395. The Blue House, originally a villa and located just north of the palace, is the executive office and residence of the President.

The second palace is Changdeokgung (established 1405). It was built to be a secondary palace to Gyeongbokgung, and was where the final Korean monarch stayed permanently. This palace is actually a little further south instead of northwest of Gyeongbokgung.

The final palace is Changgyeonggung, established in 1418 by King Sejong as a gift to his father. Strangely, Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung are actually connected, but are depicted as several roads apart on this map.

This map features two prominent mountains as well, the first being Samgaksan (North Mountain). Again, the location of this mountain is confusing, as in reality it is much further northeast.

The second prominent mountain is Namsan (South Mountain), the location of N Seoul Tower. Like the other sites, the location of the mountain has been changed, moving it northward.

Finally, the map features Jongno (the street), the namesake of the district. 

The Island of Föhr is a german island in the Wadden Sea, a segment of the North Sea

Haus 35 my family's old home. Each plot of land is marked out on this map, split into mostly farmland with the addition of houses in black.

This roughly translates to connection during ebb. The sharp tide changes allowed these islands to have a "mud bridge" between them, where people could walk across the islands.

These white paths represent the channels and their respective depths, likely at low tide. These show ships where safe passage can be found.

This grey shaded area shows tidal or mud flats. Places that at low tide would be exposed to the air, connecting the islands.

Dagebüll is the main seaport of this map, connecting the mainland to the surrounding area. This allowed for trade outside of Germany and ferry terminals

Each of these triangles represent the elevation in meters of hills across the island. 

Kirche or church are all labeled across the map, showing the further detail this map provides.

The labels on the side show where other segments of map connect to this portion of the survey, sheet #36.

The map shows both latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes.

These little marks represent thin tidal channels or flow indicators.

This is a map of my hometown, Cold Spring, in New York State. 

The map was made by Frederick William Beers in 1867, a surveyor who mapped the many counties of the Hudson Valley. This map was the second oldest I could find, the oldest being from 1857, before the Civil War. North is positioned at the top of the map.

The map's main purpose is to showcase who owns what within the two towns. Named structures signal the status of those who live in them. Identity is found through land ownership and occupation, and the importance of social mapping is showcased.

The town's claim to fame at the time was the West Point Foundry. During the Civil War the industrial complex provided 1,400 jobs, 2,000 cannons, and 3 million shells of ammunition. Abraham Lincoln famously visited the Foundry in 1862 to acknowledge the great work being done. Today it has been listed as a National Historic Landmark.

The only major part of the town that has been destroyed and not aded onto is the Foundry Dock railroad.

This is the way to my house.

The towns have kept the exact same shape. There have been a few roads added, but the layout is identical. The population data from the 1870 census was around 2,000 residents in Cold Spring and Nelsonville around 500. The 2020 census data has around 2,000 residents in Cold Spring and around 600 in Nelsonville.

Zoom back out dot

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the way that the city of Pittsburgh is spelled on this map. This map was produced in 1891, and 1891 was the year that the federal government decided to standardize spelling for cities across the country, and one of those standardizations was to make any "burg(h)" into a "burg". This lasted until 1911, when a community movement restored the H.

This probably won't be surprising to any non-Pittsburgher, but any Pittsburgher who isn't familiar with the city's history will be confused by this label "Allegheny." This is here because what we now call the "North Side" for being north of the rivers was actually an entirely separate city until 1907, when it was controversially annexed into the city of Pittsburgh. Being that this map is from 1891, that had not happened yet.

The next thing I'm going to point to is the very extensive key. As I have found on many maps from this time period, numbers are scattered across the map, with the empty space on the map serving to inform you what kind of interesting places were around. I know that many of these places are gone, but some of them I know are still around

Like this little black dot, where my sister plays the cello

How much the city borders have changed! City limits are denoted with the change in color and dot - dashed line, and pretty much the whole city fits on the map. Since 1891, like I mentioned earlier, the city has grown a lot and incorporated a lot of new neighborhoods, which is why I chose this place to highlight that, as Knoxville and Mount Oliver are now both neighborhoods of Pittsburgh

Now I want to highlight some of the neighborhoods. The first one is the Strip District, which might be Pittsburgh's most iconic and well known neighborhood outside of Pittsburgh. This map shows some really cool insight into the history of the Strip, most clearly through the railway lines, which are these solid black lines. The railways would bring in produce, meat, cheese, and whatever else they were producing, by rail, and sell it here. Those railroads no longer serve that purpose, but the neighborhood is still a thriving market district.

What's more, some of the neighborhoods have changed names. What was then called Springfield and Millwood I know as being the Upper and Middle Hill district. In the 1890 census, Pittsburgh had about a 7% black population. Today that's 25%, and I think this is related, as the Hill district is Pittsburgh's most famous black neighborhood, and I'm guessing that over time it's identity changed, and with it, it's name. Regardless of why though, these names are now obsolete.

This neighborhood is now known as Squirrel Hill, and it also appears to have been quite different. As opposed to a neighborhood like East Liberty, there isn't a single numbered location here, which would surprise most Pittsburghers, as Squirrel Hill is probably the most involved neighborhood in the whole city today. As an aside: most of the street names are the same, but their courses are actually a lot different, which is also interesting.

This is now the campus of Carnegie Mellon University, but that wouldn't be founded until 9 years later, so at this time, it's just empty space between Forbes Avenue and Schenley Park. However, if we follow the road that is perpendicular to it, we also find...

My High School, which was around at this time, but might not have been in this location, and probably had 15 students. The most interesting thing here though is that all of the streets have the same name except the main street here, which has my school's front door, and runs from CMU across to some of the biggest streets in the area. Here it's called Barton, now it's Morewood Avenue.

This is a fun island. Labeled here as Herr's Island, as it was known until the 1980's, it has a deeper story than you would otherwise think. It was a slaughterhouse during Pittsburgh's steel mill days, and anyone who passed by would notice that the island stunk horribly. When the slaughterhouse closed, no one wanted anything to do with the island, due to its connotation, so the city got involved and renamed the island to Washington's Landing. They named it so because in December 1753, George Washington the surveyor, although at this point he was a major, was on an expedition to confront the French along the frontier in the Ohio country. He and his interpreter, Christopher Gist attempted to cross the mostly frozen river in a raft, with a hatchet to break the ice, while resisting the current, which would take them all day. About halfway through, Washington, exhausted fell into the almost frozen water, and would have frozen and drowned in minutes had Gist not hoisted him out. They eventually reached this island, where they stayed before continuing North. Washington would go on to be known for other things, and the island capitalized on that. Today Washington's landing is beautiful, my mom's old crew house is on the north end, and there's a fish place on the south end, with nice new houses in between.

Finally, my house. I live up here on the northeastern side of the city, and similarly to my school, most of the street names are the same... except mine. What you'll see here as McCully street I know to be Wellesley Avenue, and my mom being a genealogist, which is like a local historian in some ways told me the story of how it got changed. It turns out, the guy who built my house, which was probably under construction when this map was made, petitioned the city to rename his street Wellesley Avenue, after the school his daughter attended. Beyond that, these streets also extend further than they are depicted, and the northern end of the neighborhood has changed too, as the park at the top has grown, and that empty white area is now the Pittsburgh zoo.

Rhineland & Belgium

Existence of a Polish State

German Confederation referred to simply as Germany

Existence of Italy on this political map

Venice out of Austrian Hands

Swedish Annexation of Norway Recognized

Strange Confederation of the UK

Implied extensive Ottoman control

Discoloration here but everywhere

Spanish Gibraltar

Lack of Ottoman recognition

Sea of Azof?

Lots of smudges and incomplete coloration

German Ocean

Icy Ocean

British Channel?

not considered european?

The cartouche in the top left corner of the map contains the title: "An Older Map of Belgium from the Geographical Undertakings of Abraham Ortelius." Additionally, there are explanations for how the various typefaces are used. The man named in the title, Abraham Ortelius, was a Flemish cartographer born in 1527. He was native to the Habsburg Netherlands, and is most famous for his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which is widely considered to be the world's first global atlas.

The cartouche in the top right corner of the map is quite notable as the main body of the cartouche contains a conspicuous "S.P.Q.A." This likely stands for "Senatus Populusque Amstelodamensis," which means "The Senate and People of Amsterdam." This is a rather on-the-nose reference to the famous "S.P.Q.R." Here, we see a clear catering to the fascination with antiquity found among the consumers of these maps. Furthermore, it perhaps indicates a romantic fascination with "Romanitas" in the cartographer himself.

Additionally, within the main body of the same cartouche, the cartographer writes the following: "Abraham Ortelius, a citizen, freely and deservedly dedicated to antiquity the homeland he had restored." The caption seems to indicate that Abraham Ortelius dedicates his homeland to antiquity itself by depicting it in a manner consistent with its state in ancient times.

The cartouche in the bottom left corner of the map seems to be a positive review, extolling the work of Ortelius and encouraging others to study the map. The translation of the text reads: "Ortelius unlocks the monuments of ancient antiquity of the Belgae, while he reads ancient histories. Gather the earliest seeds of your native soil, Belgian, and see for yourself from what ancient stock you are newly born."

In accord with its purpose, the map depicts features topical to the study of Roman history. In particular, these are installations relevant to the study of the Late Republic and Caesar's campaigns in Gallia and Belgica. The map seems to be depicting the year 57 B.C. as it includes the camp of Labienus, Caesar's, most competent lieutenant, near the Sabis River. It is from this position that Labienus aided Caesar in the Battle of the Sabis River, securing for his superior a decisive victory.

Furthermore, Belgic tribes prominent during the time period are represented in the map, such as the Nervii, who featured prominently in the Battle of the Sabis River.

What appear at first glance to be inaccuracies actually represent the state of the Dutch coastline in the first century B.C.