Strange Maps

For better or worse, there is little new under the sun [1]. The real estate bubble that burst in 2008 and kicked off the world economy’s present anaemic state, may seem like fresh horror to many. But it is only the latest example of a basic economic principle: what goes up, tends to go up too high ... Read More

In 1960, feeling he might not be long for this earth, John Steinbeck decided to travel across the length and breadth of America for one last time. The celebrated writer of East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and Grapes of Wrath set out from his Long Island home aboard Rocinante [1], his specially built ... Read More

To be or not to be Scandinavian, that might be the question soon enough for Scotland, if it decides to become independent. For the time being, Scotland is still a part of the United Kingdom, as it has been since the Acts of Union in 1707. But with the Scottish National Party firmly ensconced in ... Read More

Where is this? The question is simple enough, and in a non-metropolitan environment, the answer may be correspondingly unambiguous. But in large cities, where the flow of human traffic is fast and vast, place names are fluid. They change over time, and expand or contract according to the ebb and ... Read More

Surprise meeting with an old acquaintance in the Whitechapel Gallery - Grayson Perry’s Map of an Englishman (discussed in #241). “It’s the work that draws the most people, and gets the most laughs”, said the attendant. No wonder. Perry’s Map is a masterful blend of vaguely Tolkienish fantasy ... Read More

Last April, this blog discussed a map, dating from 1875, that showed the lower 48 states of the US in the shape of a hog: [T]his must be the world’s finest - and possibly only - example of sustained porcineography. (see #511). How wrong, how fortunately, gloriously wrong! Here is another fine ... Read More

What a strange concoction this late-18th-century French map is. Centred on the northwestern part of America, it is an eclectic mix of geographic fact and fiction. Some continental contours are instantly recognisable, for instance the Kamchatka peninsula of Russia’s Far East, and Canada’s Baffin and ... Read More

Happy 2012! By now, you’re probably still in the earnest stage of your New Year’s resolutions. If one of those is about your determination to cut back on drink, this might not be the best thing to read right now.   Maybe you should bookmark this post for that moment when you again feel like ... Read More

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But eating that apple is not enough. Where you eat it matters almost as much.  At least it did in the mid-19th century, as demonstrated by these two maps.   They show the territory of the United States divided, for the purpose of medical insurance underwriting ... Read More

Philip K. Dick never found the source of the mysterious messages he received during his ‘mystic episode’ in early 1974. The science fiction writer had a few theories, though: Soviet scientists experimenting with psychotronics, the Rosicrucians [1], an alien satellite, even an entity called the ... Read More

If you’re in the north of England and you’re in a town ending in -by, you’re in former Danish-ruled territory [1]. If the toponym starts with beau- or bel-, it was probably named by Normans [2]. And if it contains the prefix Avon- or the suffix -combe, it is one of many place names of Celtic origin ... Read More

The second dip of the worldwide recession is a bit like that scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail, where two guards stupidly stare at a horseless knight approaching in the distance.   The camera cuts countless times between the knight, who doesn’t seem to be getting any closer, and the witless duo ... Read More

How is your 'tache hanging? As Movember [1] is drawing to a close, this might be a good time to examine the tenuous, yet undeniable and intriguing overlap between cartography and facial hair.    Exhibit A: take a look at any picture of any great cartographer. What do you see? Beards and moustaches ... Read More

Finding maps that are sufficiently strange and beautiful is only half the joy of making this blog; the other is writing up the story to go along with them. But sometimes, fascinating maps are resistant to exegesis - maybe because all they need to explain is right there, in the image itself. Or maybe ... Read More

Legend has it that hardly anyone turned up for the opening night of Jean Giraudoux's (1) play La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Taking the billboards for the play too literally, Parisian theatregoers thought it had been cancelled. True or not, it’s tempting to read this anecdote as a tribute in ... Read More