MapCarte 311/365: A map of the world according to the tradition of Ptolemy and the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and others by Martin Waldseemüller, 1507

Posted on November 7, 2014 by @kennethfield

Some maps transcend their perhaps modest original purpose and become something really quite special. This map, from 1507 was made in a small town in north-east France by a group of scholars led by Martin Waldseemüller. The map’s somewhat lengthy title “A map of the world according to the tradition of Ptolemy and the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and others” is perhaps not the most efficient piece of cartographic design ever committed to paper but the map has many other important cartographic elements.

Waldseemüller was very much influenced by the voyages of Vespucci who refuted the claims of Christopher Columbus that a series of newly discovered lands to the west were part of Asia. Indeed, Vespucci claimed them as a new continent and the name ‘America’ was born. Indeed, this is the first map to show and name the continent of America and which the U.S. Library of Congress paid $10 million to acquire from a German collector in 2003. It retains the mantle of being known as America’s birth certificate. As per the title, the cartography owes much to that of Ptolemy and is in fact the first to make use of Ptolemy’s new, second projection. However, Waldseemüller wasn’t afraid to alter the map to accommodate new knowledge and this was one of the first that broke the frame of a map to show the newly rounded Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa – a place that until now had been beyond the frame of Ptolemy’s projection.

As a woodcut, printed on 12 sheets of paper it also represents one of the most intricate and detailed maps of the period, and of many to come. Its detail is impressive for the time although there are many unresolved mysteries it gives rise to…including the question of how Waldseemüller knew of the Pacific Ocean 7 years before its discovery.

Undoubtedly one of the world’s most important cartographic artifacts but also one that shows great scientific influence and care for the aesthetic appearance.

MapCarte 310/365: Mappa by Alighiero Boetti, 1971-1994

Posted on November 6, 2014 by @kennethfield

Many artists work with maps. Indeed, we’ve focused on two exponents of the art world who have very successfully worked with map imagery as part of their work in Jasper Johns (MapCarte 3/365) and Andy Warhol (MapCarte 294/365). Here, we focus on Alighiero Boetti who famously used the map for a series of works in the late 1900s. He became fascinated with the outlines of maps as human constructs – borders that demarcated often contested places. At the same time he also became interested in embroidery and he worked with Afghan craftswomen who created a series of world maps. He didn’t specify any constraints and the maps he created from the woven fabrics are a function of the way in which the craftswomen interpreted the world. This applies specifically to colours across the maps which changed between different versions based on the choices of the women themselves.

Boetti began to use the maps not only for their colourfulness but also as a lens on western cartography and the reality of the world view of the Afghan women. In some respects the craftswomen were also learning some of the craft of cartography. The maps also reveal a sense of global changes in political structure as the shapes of countries and the flags change over time. They become a collection of geopolitical reference points despite their otherwise unscientific appearance and construction. Boetti also experimented with different map projections that could be used to emphasis the politics of the time with different sizes and shapes of land masses and countries shaping the way the map was designed.

Boetti’s woven maps have become icons of the modern art movement which make statements about cartography, projections and the shape of the political world. Indeed, the very fabric of how the world is constituted and how it changes is woven into the different Mappas over time. There’s no typographical components and no pen and ink. These are real, tangible, human maps made by humans. The meaning imbued in them is a function of the deep impressions made on the Afghan craftswomen.

MapCarte 309/365: Central Africa by Dr. Livingstone, 1873

Posted on November 5, 2014 by @kennethfield

Some of the greatest maps ever made were by our explorers. Those intrepid individuals who sought to find and understand new places and make maps so that we could benefit. Of course, mapping an uncharted place alone doesn’t make a map great but the maps made by Dr David Livingstone in the mid to late 1800s are both key documents in the charting of continental Africa but also works of cartographic importance to.

Livingstone was many things but his role as scientific explorer and quest to find the source of the River Nile brought a new fascination with Africa and ultimately led to colonial interests and the so-called Scramble for Africa. He was concerned with Missionary work and firmly believed that his expeditions were in principal a way to replace the slave trade with commerce and trade. Many of his ideas and expeditions led to changes but in a mapped sense, he was able to fill in the many large blanks on the map. He is famous, of course, for being the first Westerner to see the Mosi-oa-Tunya falls which he re-named Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. He was also the first Westerner to cross the continent at the latitudes shown in this map, which currently hangs in the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Livingstone was also credited with mapping and ‘finding’ many other notable places. His maps were beautiful. They clearly represented his travels showing great care and detail in the vicinity of his routes. His relief representation was particularly well crafted as was his typography. The use of contrasting red colours showing his routes clearly set out the travels. and the use of tints added to the overall map’s appeal.

Large format wall maps and many other forms of mapping create a rich portfolio of Livingstone’s expeditions. The maps serve as testament to the spirit of discovery but also show the craft of the cartographer and the importance of the map as a document of discovery.

MapCarte 308/365: Madaba Mosaic Map by Anon, 6th Century

Posted on November 4, 2014 by @kennethfield

Art comes in many forms and many artists use maps as a vehicle for expression. The most impressive surviving example of Byzantine map-making is also the worlds oldest floor map. That is, a map on a floor made of mosaic tiles. It lies on the floor of St. George’s Church at Madaba in Jordan. Not all of the map survives as the image shows but the remaining segments clearly show the Holy Land with north upwards and Jerusalem in the centre. Topography and place names are present. Scale changes across the map which is an early example of exaggeration (as a process of generalization) to show areas of more importance as relatively larger. They required more space for the greater levels of detail.

The map depicts scenes from the Bible as well as everyday life but the main intent of the map was to encourage religious pilgrimage. The detail and the intricacy of the map shows craftmanship of the highest order, both in designing such a work made entirely of mosaic tiles but also in its construction.

The map was created with the laying and setting of tesserae, small square shaped tiles of marble, limestone and coloured glass. The original map would have been sketched out then craftsmen would have laid the tiles. This is almost paint by numbers but the combination of the original designer and the craftsmen able to execute delivery of the map shows how maps are made through collaboration of people with very specific skills.

A beautiful and artistic mosaic tile floor…which happens to be a beautiful map too.

MapCarte 307/365: Tabula Peutingeriana by Anon, 5th Century

Posted on November 3, 2014 by @kennethfield

Historic maps give us both an insight into the past but also a template from which we develop many of our modern techniques. The Peutinger Table is an historic Roman map that at first sight is simply a map of Roman settlements, spas and topography. It depicts the Roman transportation network and is perhaps the earliest form of road atlas produced though in fact it was produced at a time when Romans needed to be reassured that their empire was both impressive and strong. In many ways it was a propagandist map that was designed to show the vastness of a perhaps ailing empire.

Named after Konrad Peutinger, an economist and historian, who inherited the map in 1508 the map is actually a copy of a lost Roman original that dates to around 300 A.D. It’s impressive in its size and scope being eleven sections wide and nearly 23ft in length. The scope of the map takes readers from the British Isles to India across the Roman Empire but because the map is only 1 foot tall much of the north-south detail is hugely compressed. Around 60,000 miles of roads are shown with distances between cities shown.

The sheer size of the map makes it interesting in design terms but whether the original intent was genuinely for showing transportation networks or simply to boast of the scale of the Roman Empire, the map is impressive.

You can view the entire map as a seamless whole at Richard Talbert’s web site here.

MapCarte 306/365: The Story Map of Scotland by Colortext Publications, 1935

Posted on November 2, 2014 by @kennethfield

There’s a saying about things that are old become new again and we see plenty of that in cartography. In fact, many cartographic techniques seem to come in and out of fashion regularly as new map-makers find the technique or try and work out ways of creating a particular map type using new software. A good example recently has been the use of tesselated hexagons as a container for summarizing another dataset. We might call it hex-binning and for the last few years it’s become a popular way of mapping thematic point data because it creates visually and cognitively equivalent areas and which overcomes the death by push-pin red dot fever mapping.

Another trend has been the use of new terminology to describe a particular type of map. To some of us a little older in the tooth a map is a map. We’d go so far as to categorize based on type (topographic, thematic for example) or scale (small, medium, multiscale) but the trend to create new brands and be seen as different is inevitable. A current fad is Map Stories or Story Maps. The idea that a map has a narrative and can tell a compelling story using a mixture of maps, graphics and textual components. As with most things, this idea isn’t new either. This map by the publishers Colortext was one of a series they labelled ‘Story Map’. It combines pictorial images, text and information that in this case tells the story of Scotland. It incorporates historical and cultural components in a place-based narrative.

It’s possibly the first of the genre of Story Maps. Ernest Dudley Chase also produced a number of his own maps in the mid-1900s that he titled Story Map too. This is a well composed Story Map or, as some of us might say, a map. It’s pictorial elements are well composed and the map has a good density of information. The decorative border of the tartans adds further interest and the map as a whole combines several integrated themes to tell the story of Scotland.

MapCarte 305/365: PLAN fhewing the fituation of the BASE meafured on HOUNSLOW HEATH in Summer 1784 by Major General Willaim Roy, 1784

Posted on November 1, 2014 by @kennethfield

If you’re going to make an accurate topographic map you need a place, a position of known origin from which to accurately measure. You need a baseline. The origins of Ordnance Survey in the UK can be traced to a survey carried out for King George III and The Royal Society between 1784 and 1790. It set about determining the positions of the Greenwich Observatory and L’Observatoire de Paris relative to one another and also the distance between the two. The survey was carried out by Major General William Roy under the authority of the Board of Ordnance. The first part of this assessment was the need to calculate a surveyed baseline which he set about doing across Hounslow Heath West London. Much of the land which Roy surveyed is now occupied by modern-day Heathrow airport

Roy measured the baseline using metal rods, and later using glass rods to reduce the error due to the expansion of metal, and calculated the baseline at 27,404.01 feet. The line was re-measured in 1791 by the then newly established Ordnance Survey and found to be .23 feet longer…that’s less than 3 inches. In 1885 it was re-measured once again at 27,406.19 feet (5.19 miles, 8.35Km). In short, Roy had managed to measure a line using 1,370 placements of glass tubing, adjusted for temperature and mean sea level to an accuracy of 1 inch in 27,000ft, or 3 parts per million. This is an astonishing feet but one which subsequently allowed Great Britain to become arguably the most complete and accurately mapped place on Earth.

Roy’s baseline was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and his work won him the prestigious Copey Medal. The extract above shows the baseline from west to east as it approaches Hampton Court Palace.

The connection of the Greenwich and Paris observatories by surveyed triangulation wasn’t completed until 1787 but Roy’s baseline also formed the basis for the topographic survey of much of southern England. These surveys were made using a Ramsden theodolite which Roy had commissioned himself (from Jesse Ramsden) and which were the start of the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain, carried out between 1784 and 1853.

The map is a remarkable achievement. It’s understated simplicity showing plots of major features as well as the baseline belies its scientific accuracy and importance.

MapCarte 304/365: They would not take me there by Michael Hermann and Margaret Pearce, 2008

Posted on October 31, 2014 by @kennethfield

Maps are used for a wide variety of purposes to show something of a place, to tell a story or perhaps even to provide an insight into our imaginations. They can also be used very effectively to augment other works and materials to bring something new to the table. In this example, Pearce and Hermann have created a map that traces the story of Samuel de Champlain’s journeys in New France in the early 17th Century. It’s an example of a literary geography being brought to life through cartography.

The layout contains a very stark representation of the area of the St Lawrence River and part of the Great Lakes. The otherwise empty space is then filled with a multitude of small insets containing additional maps which act as stages in the journey. The result is both a fairly flat overall image but which contains depth and detail that one begins to see as they enter and explore the map – just as you might a good story.

The map isn’t simply a collection of randomly placed map elements which the reader is somehow expected to piece together. The map itself enhances the story so that the travel and the story in the journal is given a spatial context through arrangement. The map provides an additional actor on the stage to give rise to a richer sense of the story as if Champlain is narrating the story through the map.

The design incorporates some elements that allow us to see different actors such as the native people’s thoughts and the map author’s comments which make the map an engaging commentary as well as a representation of the original journal. The conversations and incidents are brought alive through the map. Colour is also well played to give rise to an emotional response. Darker colours represents a more foreboding element to reinforce the narrative.

A great example of emotional and narrative cartography; of story telling and of using a map and all the visual stimuli of design to capture the imagination and to convey something more than the journal alone.

You can read more about the map from the author’s here and here and Daniel Huffman has written his own excellent critique here. Thanks to Daniel for suggesting this MapCarte entry.

MapCarte 303/365: London: The Information Capital by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti, 2014

Posted on October 30, 2014 by @kennethfield

This is likely to be the only entry in MapCarte that can claim to have achieved the standards of design and innovation required to be discussed herein before it’s even been published. This new book of 100 maps of London by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti is actually published today and having seen the pre-press material some weeks ago it was clear that one or two of the maps were special. Indeed, the more one saw of the work in the book, the more it became obvious this entry should celebrate the entire book rather than attempt to select one or two noteworthy examples. It’s an atlas of noteworthy examples and that’s a strong statement before all of the maps have been seen. Some accolade – but this is a book that contains some of the very best of modern cartography which sits at the intersection of information graphics, compelling storytelling and inspiring cartography.

This book is the collaboration of geographer and visual journalist. Geographer Cheshire has produced some fantastic previous work (featured in MapCarte 7) and here, he takes his keen eye for the interesting and obscure and translates the data into simple, clean yet imaginative maps with the help of Uberti. Self-described as a visual journalist, Uberti clearly knows how to shape a story using beautiful graphics. The combination works well and the team have produced a fantastic array of visual treats, each using different graphical approaches but without falling into the trap of making each map different just for the sake of making it different.

For any cartographer, the book contains a plethora of brave and rich design. The unique approaches taken to displaying the data bring something very different to the world of mapping. These are no ordinary thematic maps. They stretch the boundaries of convention and deliver works that engages not only our interest in the themes but our interest in how the design has been constructed and how it works. It’s a coffee table book for the average punter interested in a fascinating look at London but for anyone interested in cartography it offers something much more.

Maps showing the optimal route through the London Underground take the familiar and cast it in such a way that we immediately see the path. The map of football supporter territories is a patchwork of small raster cells. The map showing the number of passport holders in London by nationality brilliantly uses a symbolic round passport stamp as a proportional symbol that contains both label and number and also clusters using colour to represent continents. Overlaps do not matter. It’s a cartogram and the design works wonderfully.

Flow maps of Oyster card tap ins to represent commuter journeys, the distribution of entertainment by type as a strip of tickets and the arrangement of bar charts organised to represent the shape of inner and outer London all play with geography but retain the essential message. Not all the graphics and map types are entirely original in the sense that it’s impossible to create 100 new map types. The treatment is original though; highly original. And the authors have also plundered the archives to resurrect and make fine use of some arguably under-used techniques like Chernof Faces and Coxcombs.

Altogether a superb illustration of the art of cartography. A masterful appreciation of data and the ability to distil it into meaningful and interesting maps. Each map offers up something new and interesting. They go beyond the mundane and create a portfolio of design to inspire and delight any map nerd and many more besides.

The authors ask interesting questions that they then translate into maps and take their inspiration for mapping the fascinating facts of London from previous pioneers of London mapping such as Harry Beck, Charles Booth and John Snow. It works. This book stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the very best in thematic mapping to paint a portrait of the city.

You can explore the book further at the web site here or via James Cheshire’s web site here.

MapCarte 302/365: The 2002 Australian Total Solar Eclipse by Fred Bruenjes, 2002

Posted on October 29, 2014 by @kennethfield

The normal way to set about making a map is to obtain some data that represents the shapes and features of the place you’re mapping and then to generalize, classify and symbolize it to suit your map. You then might overlay some thematic detail…again with heavy doses of processing to capture the essence of your message. You may add some textual components and all sorts of marginalia. WHat happens when you throw all of that out the window and approach the making of your map a different way. That’s exactly what Fre Breunjes did in this map of the 2002 Australian Total Solar Eclipse.

There’s no topographic detail, no thematic detail and no typography. There isn’t even a title! All of this accentuates the map rather than detract from it. Breunjes collected images of the solar eclipse at its maximum taken from various parts of Australia and mosaiced them into a grid of small multiples. A total solar eclipse will be observed as the Moon’s orbit passes between Earth and the Sun and if you are located somewhere near the middle of the shadow. Consequently, as the orbits move, a total solar eclipse will occur along a linear path. Either side of this path you’ll see a partial solar eclipse with less shadow the further away you are.

This beautiful map, then, doesn’t even map anything terrestrial, it maps an astronomical view from that location. The small multiples convey the amount of eclipse seen at each location and the grid of small multiples creates a quite spectacular pattern. Concentrating on the area near total eclipse you can see a variety of patterns that occur during the different phases of contact including the so-called Baily’s Beads and diamond ring effects.

You’d probably not teach a student of cartography to remove every conceivable element of a map in order to make a map yet this example proves that it’s possible. There’s absolutely no need for any other component (except perhaps a title but that’s part of the context in which Breunjes describes the map so it’s not totally absent).

You can see more detail of the maps and a version of the same approach for Africa at Breunjes web site here.

Commission on Map Design

Website of the ICA Commission on Map Design

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