I have to admit i love maps, and I found a blog that features maps (there are many of them I am told)
You can spend hours exploring strangemaps.
I decided to look around to see if I have any strange maps around the house.
One I found was a map to all the Gentleman’s Clubs in London. I suppose there are still lots of Gentleman’s Clubs, but don’t know if this map would be much help.
Looking around, I found a few maps in old travel books I have. My favorite are the pull out maps of the mountain views in Switzerland, still good to use today!
then there is this old ad very travel by railway…
I have a feeling that this old map of Milan is not correct, as it was was pre-WWII.
I
it was fun to look around the house and see if I did have any maps still around. The days of the GPS has doomed maps, but while I enjoy maps the one thing I still do not enjoy is trying to fold them back into the shape from which you unfolded them.
One map I did manage to refold, is this one from Glasgow. It was very helpful, even though I was at the time very familiar with Glasgow. I tended to get lost on side streets and needed to find my way back to the train station.
close up, one of my favorite cities to walk around. I haven’t been in far too long.
That was a problem never solved by map makers (I’m sure they never had any problem refolding a map) but while my GPS may run out of battery life, I never had to stuff a poorly folded map back in my glove compartment. By the way, I actually do keep gloves in my glove compartment. In Fall it is often cold enough to need gloves in the morning, but by afternoon it is too warm for gloves. I pop them into the glove compartment, where we used to store maps! I end up with about 6 pairs there before I clear them out. But once again the glove box is being used for it’s intended purpose!
Related articles
- On Viewing the Flattened Past (dabrownstein.wordpress.com)
- Stay Safe During Summer Travels with a Well-stocked Glove Compartment (hyundaiofgoderich.wordpress.com)
- Art: Jerry Gretzinger has spent 50 years creating a map of an alternate world (itsnicethat.com)
- How to Organize Your Glove Compartment in 15 Minutes for Under $5 (creativeorganizing.typepad.com)
Two Different Girls 
That’s pretty darn cool.
This is very, very good. It’s funny because we think we know something about the world and we usually later find out how little we actually did know. Your maps are very interesting and intriguing.
I’ve read a great book by David Sobel that chronicles the invention of the longitude instruments. It’s a fascinating story because before these instruments were invented sailors really just sailed east and west by guessing. They didn’t actually know how far east or west they were at sea. Here’s some links to these books and movies:
Longitude by David Sobel
http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem/dp/0802714625/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1379334758
http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Michael-Gambon/dp/B00004U2K1/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
How the States Got Their Shapes:
http://www.amazon.com/How-States-Got-Their-Shapes/dp/0061431397/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
Thanks.
I have read both those books. They are good.
We decorate our home with antique maps. Maps were once, not only useful, but also works of art. Beautiful!
As for GPS systems, I don’t find them all that useful. Too many assumptions are made about wanting to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Even if I set the GPS to avoid highways, it doesn’t include enough “off the beaten path” info to give me the route I want. Instead, I use a National Geographic Atlas with scenic byways mapped out, and travel books with interesting things to see along my route. (BTW, I’ve never had difficulty refolding a map, but then wrapping gifts and other paper related crafts are some of my hobbies.)