Maps and Atlases Message Board

I love maps.

With the full development of computer technology, I would think cartograghy would see something new and different, but atlases seem very conservative in presentation. Can anyone suggest a book of maps out of the mainstream?

I don't know much about it, but an interesting-looking thing called The Map Book came out not too long ago. Also, have you seen You Are Here?

You are Here is marvellous, but too small.

From a map point of view (I don't have atlases) conservative presentation is good. Most maps after all are a functional product and not just pretty collectable pamphlets. Anything too far from what has gone before would reduce that functionality.

Thanks for the tips on The Map Book and You are Here. Andyl, you may be right, but occasionally I see a map that uses an unusual presentation to convey a perspective that is very interesting. The map that comes to mind is a National Geographic map of the shell casing locations at Little Big Horn. I have seen non-commercial maps that have layers of GIS biological information that were amazing. I'm surprised that more of the atlases released today are not more creative.

I have a fairly large (this is one of those places where you say large and of course someone has a collection that redifines what I think of as large) collection of 7.5 minute quadrangles of Utah and Colorado. Play around I noticed if I searched on LT addbook page using "ILCSO (Illinois Libraries)" and the map number or title I got results. Here is the one quad I pulled in - 7.5 minute series (topographic) : Hotel Rock quadrangle, Utah-San Juan Co.

Has anyone else tried pulling in maps like this?

Well, now you've done it. It hadn't even occurred to me to try adding maps, but I've just found half a dozen in the Library of Congress. But I'm stuck on my little collection of War Office and Air Ministry D Survey maps of the Egyptian and Arabian deserts (Series 1404, Sheets 446-D, 545-D, 669-B, 543-D, and 448-C) -- no matter what combination of identifiers I put in, I can't find any of 'em. Now I can't scratch an itch I didn't know I had. Thanks a lot!

If you plug in "series 1404" with any of the following:

Australian National University
Library of Congress
ILCSO

You will get results. Looks like they are cataloging only by series.

I tried that with L of C, but I just got one hit:

British Isles planning map / produced under the direction of the Director of Military Survey, Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom, 1981 ; overprint prepared by Mapping and Charting Establishment RE. (1981)

ILCSO also only gets one hit:

World 1:500,000 map. (1958)

The Aussies give me two, count 'em two, hits:

Pollentia : a Roman colony on the island of Mallorca / Norman A. Doenges. (2005)

World 1:500 000 cartographic material / Published by D Survey, War Office and Air Ministry. (1956)

No Bawiti or Cufra anywhere to be seen...

I've grown lazy with my review, which upsets me greatly. Up until June, I could freehand a map of the world (minus the Americas and Africa) and list all of the countries and their capitals.

It would be awful, out of proportion, and missing large chunks of continents were I to try it now. *gets back to the books*

Has anybody read The Atlas of Experience? Guess it's a little off-topic . . .

I guess this group is dead. Too bad...

Atlas of Experience is fantastic. Have you been to the website where you can create your own map?

i guess i'm still not really sure how to use this group. it seems like a lot of trouble to have a conversation. any suggestions?

ibbetson, what website is that??

Hartford Courant reporter Kim Martineau will speak at Simmons College (300 The Fenway, Boston) on Monday, 26 February at 6 p.m. She will discuss her coverage of the E. Forbes Smiley map theft case and its implications for libraries. The event will take place in the Faculty/Staff dining room, and is free and open to the public. For directions or more information, feel free to email me (jbdibbell at gmail.com).

This event is sponsored by the American Library Association's Student Chapter at Simmons College.

{Pardon cross-posting to the Bostonians and Librarians groups}

Saw this group for lovers of maps and atlases, but most of the posts are not really about -for instance- geographical atlases. I'ld like to discuss old and new atlases, what do you think is the best World atlas for example, and so on. I will be listing my atlases in LT shortly.

#19,

This is just a message board. You may want to start your own thread under this group with a title that specifies want to talk about. Message boards tend to be more eclectic and unstructured.

Back to the beginning, I love maps too. I think this group needs a pic. Maybe a map or something. Mr. Creator are you out there?

Here's an interesting article on how the borders of the world have changed since 1945. http://thesmartset.com/article/article08221301.aspx

I love maps too. :)

About the ways in which borders have changed, I love looking at globes and trying to determine when they were made based on their depiction of the country boundaries.

>22 varielle: Would that one world worked in terms of peace as suggested by Mr Davis in the article, but it doesn't seem remotely likely to work. There are plenty of examples of groups even within the borders of X country hating and killing folks of other groups in the same country, burning their houses and other rather obnoxious actions. Additionally, practically any country of any size has been an aggressor versus indigenous groups and/or other countries at some point in history (even so if you limit the time spread to the last 200 years or so).

The undoing of a lot of the above last sentence is shown by the maps of 1945 versus today. Human beings are not so far removed from savagery and the belief that we're better than other folks as we would like to think, are we?

>23 stellarexplorer: My love of maps started with stamp collecting in the late 1940s and early 1950s and long ago given up (stamps, that is). It gradually dawned on me then what the word "colony" really meant and that it might not be totally benign. And, the wars that changed the maps, etc...

I still have my old stamp collection -- seeing what countries put on their stamps in the 50s to 70s is a colorful social history... (Ps the US seemed to be more popular then....$