#maphistory — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #maphistory, aggregated by home.social.
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A German atlas map of Taiwan published in 1899, featuring unusual German-style romanization and many Qing-era place names. Modern Taichung, for example, appears as “Tai-wan-fu.”
What other interesting details can you find?
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#Women and #Cartography from the Middle Ages to the 20th century
cfp for a March 2027 symposium at the Université Le Havre, Normandie
deadline for submissions: 30 September 2026
more info at: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20156508/women-and-cartography-middle-ages-20th-century
(pictured: Louise Jefferson's 1945 #map of demographic change caused by WW2 = OML 58789)
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Had a fun time exploring all the maps in Czechia's National Museum ... my little write up is now at https://www.mappingasprocess.net/blog/2026/7/14/a-mappy-time-in-czechias-national-musuem
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A 500-year-old map known as “America’s Birth Certificate” was found a century ago. But what, and where, was “America”?
To learn more, check out my op-ed in the LA Times. PDF & images in 🧵.
1/ 🧵
#maphistory #cartography #histsci #earlymodern #america250 #4thofJuly 🗃
www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: What 'America' me... -
The next symposium of the International Society for the History of the Map will meet in May 2027 at the Catalan Cartographic Institute, Barcelona. Preceded by two-day workshop for early career professionals.
BOTH very much recommended!
More information at https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20153752/cfp-ishmap-2027-barcelona-symposium-and-workshop-mapping-outside
Proposal deadline is 30 September 2026.
Please share #maps #maphistory #cartography
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If any #maps people are paying attention, and have access to CBS TV, 10:20am Eastern Time -- this morning 17 July -- there'll be a segment on the Osher Map Library at University of Southern Maine !!!! I'm on a train and so won't be able to see myself live, as it were, but you all can! #cartography #maphistory
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Fun argument that the US West would have been better managed, esp. re its water resources, if the Western states had followed the watersheds identified by John Wesley Powell ... https://onland.westernlandowners.org/2026/on-water/an-old-map-could-provide-a-new-vision-for-water-management-in-the-west/
#maphistory #maps #cartography -
I've been having fun reading up on the reception of Ptolemy's Geography in the 15th century, and the making of globes. Saw the image that this detail is from as from a "15c" Greek manuscript, but by the stylish knee is plainly America ... so after 1500! BnF ms grec 1401 fol. 2r
Enjoy!
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My 2023–24 exhibition on #maps and #chromolithography is now online at
https://exhibits.oshermaps.org/pageant-of-spectacles/
The exhibition and associated lectures prompted me to write up a long-ish essay on “Mapping, Printing, Color,” which is both part of the exhibition website and available in a separate PDF publication available from
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I have a new, long-ish post on Alfred Korzybski's use of his map metaphor (nowadays simplified as "the map is not the territory"). And what I now see as its confusions! Enjoy!!
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New #maps #cartography #maphistory book … been waiting for this to come out. Braccio has been identifying indigenous maps (some fakes) in the colonial archive. Congratulations, Nathan!!
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One of my favorite atlas -- the 1513 Strasburg edition of Ptolemy's Geography, with maps by Martin Waldseemüller, printed by Johannes Schott, with some maps in color!!! - has been imaged by Osher map Library and is available online at https://oshermaps.org/map/4073.0184 (link to this page: Ptolemaic map of the ecumene)
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Registration for the next International Conference on the History of Cartography, being held 7–10 June 2026 in Prague and Brno, Czech Republic, is now open. Cheap rate through 15 April 2026; also, low rates for students. Packed program, great exhibitions, wonderful people!
Register online at https://ichc2026.org
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I have added a brief post on my #cartography blog — https://www.mappingasprocess.net/blog/2026/2/12/a-surrealist-map-film — about a 1980 film about #maps, effectively advertising the Pompidou Centre’s great exhibition, Cartes et figures de la terre. It’s wonderful, encapsulating much of “postmodernist” arguments re maps … #maphistory
Link to video w/ English subtitles in the post. Enjoy!!
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The #maphistory talk I gave to some hardy Mainers in Harpswell last Saturday, in the middle of a snow storm, about the #mapping of their rocky necks and islands, is now online. Nicely done video by the local community TV station! #cartography #maps
See it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsUezzLbTxE
Enjoy!
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Been waiting for this book: said it had shipped before New Year. Finally had brain power to remember to track it. Says it was delivered ten days ago - just found it where packages never usually left, under two storms worth of snow. At least I found it before today’s sleet starts!! Blarg. Have dried it off.
Anyway — new #maphistory #cartography #modernism book!!!
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Also - went yesterday to Secret #Maps at the BL - fun show; great intro to the complex nature of maps! Some great jokes hidden in there for map heads, too. #cartography #maphistory
Go if you’re in London before it closes in mid-January
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Osher #map #library makes NPR's morning news!!! 6:30 minutes, no less (an eternity in radio!) wowser!!
Listen at https://www.npr.org/2025/12/07/nx-s1-5619794/maps-globes-maine-library
Great summary of the work of the OML team in teaching K-12 and university students and researchers about maps!!
Image of my GEO 370 students examining our current exhibition "Founding Memories"
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Hi everyone! It's "Giving Tuesday" so please consider giving to the History of Cartography Project as it seeks to wrap up the final volume of THE #HISTORY OF #CARTOGRAPHY !!
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Time for the annual list of books in map history published over the last year. This year, you have time to perhaps buy some for xmas gifts!
#maps #cartography #maphistory #books
Here's a cartoon by Tom Gauld!!!!!!
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Second book awaiting my return — Bill Rankin’s long awaited (at least by me) history of 20c #radical implementations of maps — all great stuff!!!
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First book awaiting my return - James Cheshire’s ode to the maps in the Map Library of the geography department at University College London (where I spent 3 v happy years in early 1980s)
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Day 9 — Analog 🪶
Scenographia Systematis Copernicani — a 16th-century depiction of the heliocentric world system.
Nicolaus Copernicus placed the Sun near the center of the Universe, forever changing our cosmic map. ☀️🌍✨ -
Hi Everyone: Just a reminder that the deadline for proposals for the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY in Prague-Brno in July 2026 is rapidly approaching. It is 14 November! Please get your proposals in!!!!
For info, goto https://ichc2026.org
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I have a new post at mappingasprocess.net, on the most amazing map exhibition, ever!
*Cartes et figures de la terre* at the Centre Pompidou in 1980 -- really wish I'd been able to see it!
read it at: https://www.mappingasprocess.net/blog/2025/10/13/the-most-importantand-amazingmap-exhibition-ever
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John Speed Enlarged
Matthew shared this "this might be my last time in the Science Hall office of the history of #cartography project, as the building is about to get entirely rehabilitated before I next have to return in person! So here’s David Woodward’s blow up of 1651 Speed #maps … #maphistory … w photos of Woodward and Harley !!!!"
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John Speed Enlarged
Matthew shared this "this might be my last time in the Science Hall office of the history of #cartography project, as the building is about to get entirely rehabilitated before I next have to return in person! So here’s David Woodward’s blow up of 1651 Speed #maps … #maphistory … w photos of Woodward and Harley !!!!"
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Newly conserved 1880s strip #map of the Hudson River, rolled up inside a mini beer barrel. We can now open and close this without damaging the map. The map continues on the verso. So cool! #maphistory #cartography. At Osher Map Library oshermaps.org
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All the maps for show and tell just now - territorial mapping 18-19c. #maps #maphistory — so much fun (for me at least!)