The Book Shopper

Maps I Love #4

Continuing from the previous July postings about Simon Garfield's ode to maps, On the Map: A Mind Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks (2013) I am listing personal maps that have stuck in my mind. As Simon writes, “when we gaze a map--any map, in any format from any era -- we still find nothing so much as history and ourselves.”

Mercator vs. Peters-Gall

Similiar to making globes representing the spherical Earth on a flat piece of paper presents it's problems. As a youth, our classrooms were always decorated with the Mercator World Map, which at that time seemed to be the map standard. Little did I know that it was based on the work of Gerardus Mercatur (1512-1594) who addressed the sphere problem by bowing the lines at a certain degree. This somewhat distorted the map into making it European and Greenland centric and de-emphasing South America and Africa. Or course, I didn't know this. I kept thinking, "Greenland is damn big."

Then came along Arno Peters (1916-2002)  in the 1970s who claimed that his Peters Projection map developed along with James Gall was more accurate portrayal of size of land masses even though the masses themselves are distorted. I keep a Peters Map on my cube wall and it never fails to elicit a response of bewilderment even though this interpertation of the world has been around a long time.

Of course I am always trying really trying get quizzical looks from my cube visitors, so I keep my Jasper Johns print of the United States (a sorry example of museum impulse buying) pinned to my wall . It doesn't have any thing "useful" like state capitals or highways, but it is colorful.

 

Maps I Love #3

Continuing from the previous July postings about Simon Garfield's ode to maps, On the Map: A Mind Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks (2013) I am listing personal maps that have stuck in my mind. As Simon writes, “when we gaze a map--any map, in any format from any era -- we still find nothing so much as history and ourselves.”

Globes Are Maps Too

Garfield dedicates a chapter to some famous globes, which are tricky to build because taking a flat, print representation of the Earth and covering a sphere is no easy task.  One of the more famous efforts are the identical globes that were built for Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. The globes were gifts from Allied Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall (of The Marshall Plan).

You can still buy globes of this size and magnitude from London-based  globemaker Peter Bellerby. Bellerby calls his updated replicas - The Churchill.

World's Largest Globe

Last summer, I visited world's largest globe known as The Eartha Globe  in Yarmouth, Maine. Eartha dominates the atrium of the DeLorme, a maker of GPS software, satellite communication devices, maps and atlases. As you can see from my photo below, getting a shot of the entire globe from pole to pole is not doable with my camera. But you do get a sense, as globe affionados will tell you that, "The bigger the globe, the bigger the blank space in the Pacific."

Who Reads Book Reviews?

Yeah, Wrigley may look impressive by reading The New York Times Book Review, but he only does it to sound like he's read the latest books.

Maps I Love #2

Continuing from the previous posting about Simon Garfield's ode to maps, On the Map: A Mind Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks (2013) I am listing personal maps that have stuck in my mind. As Simon writes, “when we gaze a map--any map, in any format from any era -- we still find nothing so much as history and ourselves.”

Transit Maps

Garfield dedicates a chapter to Harry Beck (1902 - 1974) the London Underground draughtsman who redesigned the London Tube map in the 1930s. Beck's now famous "electrical circuit" design does not reflect it's actual geographic scale between London stations, but organizes and represents the stations such that makes it much easier for commuters to navigate on the Underground. Below is one of the early iterations.

T-Shirt Maps

Regular readers know that this blog is the virtual home of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Book Club, (see the category list on the right for all the postings about it), and public transportation has long been an interest of mine that extends beyond Atlanta. Visiting Boston, I am always impressed with the Boston T, so much that I used to have shower curtain of the transit map (before it distingrated in mold). I still have a couple T-shirts with the map. Notice the same Beck-like design on the shirt.

When I wear them around Atlanta,  I get comments ranging from "I wish we had better public transportation" or "Why don't you just live in Boston, if you love it so much?"

 

Maps I Love

 

I just finished reading Simon Garfield's ode to maps, On the Map: A Mind Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks (2013) that covers everything maps, ranging Babylonian clay tablets dating from 600 B.C. to the latest innovations from Google. As I read, I started reminscing about personal memories of all maps I have that stuck in my mind. As Simon writes, “when we gaze a map--any map, in any format from any era -- we still find nothing so much as history and ourselves.”

For next few postings I will share some of my favorites and why:

The Battle of Nashville Map

This map of the Battle of Nashville came from the attic of my grandmother who was on the board of her local library. Apparently, the library was going to pitch some of these old Civil War battlefield maps and she rescued a couple dozen of them. Later because of my ( never ending ) interest in the Civil War she gave me the maps, but only one survived the years in our garage.  I finally had this map properly framed with museum glass and everything. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

More Civil War Maps

While the United States War Department's Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies was originally published in 1880) is the defining book of Civil War maps,  you can learn more about mapmaking in the Civil War by looking at the gorgeously printed  Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War (1999) written by Earl B. McElfresh, which includes many maps not included in the Atlas. I picked up my copy at an antique outlet for about $15.