Art
How Ancient Cartographers Mapped the World We See Today
No maps remain from the Ancient Greeks and Romans, yet we know that they looked to the stars and to the widening world around them and responded with their own influential cartography.
Maps
Art
The Obsession With Mapping New York City's Past
People in New York City seem to have a particular fixation with mapping the past.
Art
Ostrich Egg Globe Might Be Earliest Depiction of the Americas
The New York Public Library's 1510 Hunt-Lenox Globe better watch its bronze throne because a new globe portends to be the oldest to show the Americas. And it has the curious advantage of being carved into the round form of an ostrich egg.
Art
Mid-Century Illustration Maps Folkloric Americana
John Henry with his hammer, Rip Van Winkle taking a snooze, the Celebrated Jumping Frog rests alongside Coronado scaling a mountain, while Babe the Blue Ox sprints towards the famous Idaho potato. All these figures of American folklore are sprawled across the United States in a 1946 map by artist Wi
Art
What Are We Still Mapping For?
When I was a kid, my father kept a dog-eared street map of the Dallas metroplex in his truck’s glove compartment. As a contractor who spent hours driving each day, this atlas was his North Star — a point of reference for navigating the city’s chaotic, concrete sprawl. Today, the cartographic traditi
Opinion
Dot Matrix: You're Finally on the Map
This is what we look like. You, me, and everybody else in North America: one dot each. 341, 817, 095 dots.
Opinion
Google Maps Reveals North Korea to the Web
It happened in a surprising instant: North Korea became just a little bit more accessible. Google Maps now features data on the secretive country, with the names of streets and buildings labeled, plus some more sensitive information.
Opinion
Map Shows Block-by-Block Flooding from Sandy
Everyone knows that Hurricane Sandy caused major damage to parts of New York City, but if you want more concrete information about how much flooding really happened — how many feet of water and where — the New York Times has published an amazing map that offers precisely that.
Opinion
Apple's Amazingly Artistic iOS6 Maps
You don't really want your maps to be "artistic" renderings of reality, we all prefer them accurate, but the recent release of Apple's iOS6 maps is proving more artistic fiction rather than fact.
Opinion
Stereotyping People's Stereotypes of the World
LOS ANGELES — Satirical maps have a powerful way of stereotyping the stereotypes people have. Which is why Bulgarian graphic designer Yank Tsvetkov's map designs have a particular bite. His Mapping Stereotypes series claims to be "The Ultimate Bigot's Calendar," with perspectives of Europe and the w
Opinion
Minimal Maps and Tweeted Traffic in the City
LOS ANGELES — It's always interesting to see different schematics for visually approaching a city. So much of how we experience a new place is defined by the map in our heads, and those maps tend to be limited to subway maps and, increasingly, Google Maps.