Pictorial Bird's Eye Map of Banff

Here is a really nice pictorial map of Banff, showing the mountains, rivers, railroads and hotels. 

 Mountains are listed with their elevations.

A quiet corner at the end of Lake Minnewanka,

and some sky above the ice field.

Browse the whole map here.

The "Unique" Map of California

This map, circa1888 is a remarkable exercise in California boosterism.

Details include a list of crops or products from each county, pictures of farms, scenery and cultural attractions, railroads and topography. Cities are notably not emphasized.

 A nice touch at the top - the Sierra peaks.

 Also - "Big Trees"

There are additional maps showing average temperatures and soils. The soils map is full of cheery optimism about agricultural productivity - "some of this territory is doubtless arid lands. But portions of it once considered irreclaimable are now yielding enormous crops."

I especially like the bit in the lower left corner that shows how many other states can fit into California... 

...because it reminds me of that SCTV skit mocking 1970's Soviet propaganda. Diabolical laughter ensues as more countries are fit into Russia.

Argentina - "it looks like tiny sausage against a vast, colossal size of Mother Russia!"
BONUS VIDEO! (If the embedded video below disappears then click the picture above for video)

Note the geographical inaccuracy as he places Australia over Kazakhstan and refers to it as "Ukraine." 

40 Maps That Won't Explain Anything - Part 2

Here's the second installment of 40 Maps That Won't Explain Anything - Part 1 with a snarky explanation about this series is here.

11. Hand painted map of submarine fiber optic cables. A zoomable version is here.

12. James Niehues makes pretty ski area maps. Here's Mt Alyeska in Alaska with the aurora borealis lighting up the sky.

13. Upside down 1963 Esso map for travelers going from New York to Florida.

14. "Eastern Shore of Virginia - Most Fertile Trucking Area in the United States" G.L. Webster Canning Co.

15. Map of San Seriffe - from a Guardian April fool's prank.

16. Majority Home Heating Fuel Type - Washington. From the American Community Survey.

17. TweetMap - heat map showing where people were tweeting using the hashtag #Phillies last summer.

18. The Tacony Hoagie Trail in Northeast Philadelphia. Go for a healthy hike!

19. The Japan Railways System

20. 1915 stamp featuring a map of Mexico

Pictorial Savannah

Friend of the blog Michael Karpovage has won the Best Recreational/ Travel Map in the 40th Annual Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) Map Competition (2012). I was waiting for some exciting announcement from CaGIS but the gallery of winners is merely a list - no pictures or even links to see what these maps look like. Here are some pictures lifted  from his website.

The image above shows Side A highlighting the historic district. Here is a closer detail showing the area where we stayed recently.

Below is Side B showing a broader view and listing the attractions.

Finally, a detail showing Mr. Karpovage hiding in the shadow of an oak tree.

 Congratulations Mike!

Map of Chicago's Gangland

On my recent visit to the Newberry Library, I walked into the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography. It was not clear whether the public is welcome there but the room was unlocked. On a large table under glass was a copy of A Map of Chicago's Gangland from Authentic Sources. This is a tounge-in-cheek map from 1931 "designed to inculcate the most important principles of piety and virtue in young persons and graphically portray the evil and sin of large cities."

This map romanticizes the prohibition era and Al Capone style gangsters with details showing events from gang wars, neighborhoods such as Little Sicily, bootleggers, auto theft, Mrs. O'Leary's cow, a lawyer running to spring his client and machine gunners from Detroit arriving for "Post-Graduate work," and a scale of murders, instead of miles. Gangland killings are marked with skulls and crossbones. Here is a detail of the area around the Newberry.

The map can be seen in greater detail at the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

Note the cartographic and cultural differences between a 1931 gangster map and the current map.

Akihabara-Japan's Electronics Market

My September, 2008 issue of Nipponia magazine features Akihabara. This district of Tokyo has become the world's largest collection of electronics stores as well as a lifestyle mecca for fans of manga, anime and video games.

The printed copy has a large centerfold map of the district-here's a copy from their web site.

The red and dark blue dots are electronic stores and parts stores. Orange are computers and peripherals. Pink dots are pop culture stores and light blue dots are places that sell mini cars, train sets and robots. The map also shows you where you can get canned bread, o-den ("chunks of food") and other delicacies.

The green dots are maid cafes. These are cafes where you can live out your video game fantasies (aka cosplay) by being served by maids who will refer to you as "My Lord and Master" or "Your Ladyship" and may cast spells or draw pictures in ketchup on your food. Most customers are male - big surprise!

Indoor Living - Part 2

Commenter Matt pointed out that Toronto has an impressive network of (mostly underground) connections. In fact it is the largest underground shopping complex with 28 kilometers (17 miles) of shopping arcades. Other interesting facts about the network can be found here. Below is a map of the system from ygraph.

Montreal also has a large Underground City represented pink lines on this map.

Here is the Centre Eaton map.

Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of the world's major skyway and underground systems.

Indoor Living

Had enough of winter's chill? The perfect warm weather destination is ...Minneapolis! With an extensive skyway system you can spend a week (or longer) there in your jammies and never go outside. Stay at a downtown hotel and you can walk indoors to shopping, restaurants, theaters, art galleries, tourist attractions and basketball games. Here's a map of the skyway system.

Map of the Weekend-Your Fall Foliage Travel Guide

Looking for the prettiest leaves this weekend? The Foliage Network has you covered - some of the country anyway. They have a network of spotters to help them construct maps like this:

Or this one if you're more of a midwestern type of leaf peeper:

They also have the southeast but there's not much to report there yet. In the Northeast elevation is a huge factor whereas in the flatter Midwest it's more about how far north you are - though maybe elevation accounts for the western slant of the moderate-high areas.

If you're going to Wisconsin, the state's tourism department has a nice interactive map where you can mouse over a county and get "color meter" scores from specific areas within.

Finally, I couldn't resist making an animation from the northeast reports to show the spread of color. Happy leaf travels!

Bruce, Bruce and Tom-A Musical Journey

I've always been interested in the geography of musicians-where they come from, where they get discovered, and where they choose to reside when success allows them that choice. I've found a few nice musician maps over the last couple of years. These three artists were chosen because someone made maps for them, more than for any personal preference.

Bruce Cockburn was born and raised near Ottawa but has spent most of his musical career in Toronto. He currently resides near Kingston, Ontario according to his web site. Here is a clickable map of his life in Toronto:

If you prefer the other Bruce, here is a map of  Springsteen's New Jersey titled "Bruceville." Bruce Springsteen is that rare musician who's never needed to stray too far from home and has always remained true to the Garden State.

This map is more fanciful than accurate. The only places that really seem to be located correctly are the Boardwalk, Highway 9 and his father's house. Little Eden is Millville? "The River" is the Delaware? "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" is about Tom's River? * I have my doubts about these things. Thanks to Strange Maps for this.                                                        * After consulting Wikipedia, the undisputed source of all knowledge, it turns out the "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" may actually refer to 10th Avenue in Belmar. If true then the map is close.

Shortly before his Super Bowl XLII appearance, LA Weekly published this map  of Tom Petty's Los Angeles by illustrator Scott Gursky. Although a native of Florida, Petty moved to LA at the beginning of his career and has remained in the area ever since. The article details each place on the map.

 

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Map of the Week-Tasty Wine Maps

I don't know much about wine. My keen sense of taste tells me that some wines are "better" than others. I do know that my local liquor store is decorated with some nice, colorful maps including this one.

This map is huge and takes a long time to download so I only show a section of it above. It is available online here (click the "Quality Wines map" link) if you want to wait for it. The store also has nice regional maps of France, but I could not find those online. However, I did find lots of other maps. Here is a nice general map of France for people like me who only know the most basic distinctions.


Those with a keener palette may want to dig into a detailed region such as the Loire.

If you're planning some wine tourism you might want a detailed map like the one below of Madera, California. I mainly included this map because it is, in my cartographic opinion, cute. You might get lost if you actually try to use this map as its accuracy seems to get lost in all the cuteness.

L'Chaim!

Treasures from the DeLorme Store

Some nice maps are found in yard sales for pennies (previous post) but sometimes it's equally nice to browse through a map store and spend some money. A highlight of any trip to Maine is a visit to the DeLorme Map Store in Yarmouth. Not only does it have the world's largest rotating and revolving globe, it also has a great selection of maps and a budget bin full of surprises. I spent $42 and got lots of good stuff including:

















Mount Washington trail map by The Wilderness Map Company. Nice clean lines and use of color. Printed on heavy stock to stand up to a snowy hike.

Afghanistan and Surrounding Territory by Oxford Cartographers. Includes all of Pakistan and Tajikistan. A good map to have with so much of this area in the news regularly.

Unfortunately the back side is blank - what a rip!

Miami Popout Map by Compass Maps. Yes popout maps are gimmicky and only show the touristy places but the cartography's well done and who doesn't like a good popout?


Oregon by Rand McNally. If you have the road atlas, then you have this map but it was in the budget bin and has some goofy tourist blurbs along with the city maps. I couldn't resist that. Who would have guessed that Salem has "governmental and agricultural activity"?


Map of Kennebec River trails (Augusta-Gardiner, Maine) produced for the Friends of the Kennebec River Rail Trail. This is a very attractive map/brochure with contributions from numerous conservation agencies. The detail above shows downtown Augusta.



Santa Monica Mountains - National Geographic's Trails Illustrated series. Printed on waterproof paper!

Santa Monica Pier from same map - Happy 100th birthday!