Transit Maps
What I’m Up To and the Future of the Blog
Hi, everyone – it’s been a while! Quite a few people have written in lately wondering why I haven’t...
6 months ago
Hi, everyone – it’s been a while! Quite a few people have written in lately wondering why I haven’t updated the blog in a while, so I thought I should address that. Firstly, for those that were concerned something was wrong, I’d like to reassure you that I’m a-okay and everything...
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Lines of the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway, 1927
Here’s a fascinating map of streetcar lines in Omaha, Nebraska in 1927, beautifully hand drawn on...
a year ago
Here’s a fascinating map of streetcar lines in Omaha, Nebraska in 1927, beautifully hand drawn on top of a pre-printed single colour map of the area produced by the City’s engineering department. Not only does the map show the extent of all the streetcar lines (with 64.6 miles of...
Transit Maps
Official Map: C-TRAN Bus Network, Vancouver, Washington, October 2023
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Transit Maps has never taken a look at the map for Portland’s...
a year ago
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Transit Maps has never taken a look at the map for Portland’s northern neighbour, the (original) Vancouver. With the recent addition of their second “The Vine” BRT route along Mill Plain Boulevard, now seems like a good time. At first glance, it...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 3 (Dorchester)
We began to explore a little further afield, still within Dorset, as we began to settle in to our...
5 months ago
We began to explore a little further afield, still within Dorset, as we began to settle in to our home for the week. That took us a little further west and a few miles inland from the English Channel. It included a lot of open countryside and then a sizeable settlement....
Adventures In...
Women in GIS Workshop
If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider...
2 weeks ago
If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider tuning in to this Women in GIS workshop where I’ll share the process (and all the data and documents) for making this migration map. The cost is free, unless you count the 2.5 hours of...
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Long Island Rail Road Screen Maps at Grand Central Madison
Submitted by Griffin, who says: I work upstairs in the old Grand Central and was every excited to...
a year ago
Submitted by Griffin, who says: I work upstairs in the old Grand Central and was every excited to check out the new station this morning. Spotted this new map on the wall down there, thought you might find it interesting. Transit Maps says: Oh, I do like this. Graphically strong...
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Rail and Bus Map of Southeast Queensland, Australia, 2024
Submitted by Lachlan, who says: Brisbane dropped a new transit map and it is EXTREMELY pretty. I’m a...
2 months ago
Submitted by Lachlan, who says: Brisbane dropped a new transit map and it is EXTREMELY pretty. I’m a big fan. Definitely the best-designed official transit map in Australia in my opinion. It even acknowledges the rapid bus routes and the G-Link light rail! I wish it could have...
Maps Mania
The Book Banning Map of America
3 months ago
Map of the Week
Endangered Languages of New York City
In January I did a series of posts on endangered languages. A few weeks ago the New York Times had...
9 months ago
In January I did a series of posts on endangered languages. A few weeks ago the New York Times had an excellent "scrollytelling" graphic story on these languages and where they are spoken within New York City.
as you scroll down the page languages appear down Manhattan...
Map of the Week
Terrain Representations from the Atlas of Design
In last week’s post I reviewed Volume 7 of the Atlas of Design. As an occasional cartographer I have...
2 months ago
In last week’s post I reviewed Volume 7 of the Atlas of Design. As an occasional cartographer I have been interested in how topography is represented in maps for a long time. This atlas volume provides many contrasting examples. From the “cartographic realism” of Tom Patterson’s...
Maps Mania
Who are Your Neighbors Donating to?
2 months ago
Maps Mania
Battles of World War II & American Wars
5 months ago
Map of the Week
Map of Endangered Languages - Part 2
Last week's post showed a huge number of indigenous languages throughout the world. Here is a...
11 months ago
Last week's post showed a huge number of indigenous languages throughout the world. Here is a summary (via the Living Tongues Institute) showing hotspots of endangered languages.
The above site has a companion living dictionaries site where you can find a language by...
Maps Mania
The Money Mountains of Los Angeles
4 months ago
Maps Mania
The Worldwide Breaking News Map
6 months ago
Maps Mania
The 100 Most Segregated School Districts in America
9 months ago
Maps Mania
Trains, Balloons and Automobiles
5 months ago
Maps Mania
Using the Overpass API with Leaflet
11 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 7 (South Korea: The DMZ)
The Korean War never actually ended. Rather, it froze in place at an armistice line on July 27,...
a year ago
The Korean War never actually ended. Rather, it froze in place at an armistice line on July 27, 1953. So there’s a multi-decade ceasefire, a truce, but no agreed-upon resolution of hostilities. A four kilometre wide Demilitarized Zone acts as a buffer between North and South...
Maps Mania
The Great Amazonian Indigenous Land Grab
a year ago
Map of the Week
The New Acadian Heritage Room
On my recent trip to Nova Scotia, I stumbled upon the grand opening of the New Acadian Heritage Room...
a year ago
On my recent trip to Nova Scotia, I stumbled upon the grand opening of the New Acadian Heritage Room at the O’Dell House Museum in Annapolis Royal. I had not known anything about it, but was in the right place on the right day. The room is primarily a collection of maps from the...
Map of the Week
Thirty Day Map Challenge 2023-Days 1 and 2
Yes it’s November and time for another 30 Day Map Challenge. As in previous years (see here for last...
a year ago
Yes it’s November and time for another 30 Day Map Challenge. As in previous years (see here for last year) I began with no real goal of completing it or much idea beyond the first few days. Also as in previous years I’m getting sucked in again. Only two days of action to report...
Maps Mania
Where to Watch April's Solar Eclipse
10 months ago
Maps Mania
Live 2 Years Longer with Better Air Quality
a year ago
Map of the Week
The Southern Underground Railroad
This map, via Smithsonian, shows the main passageways that the enslaved took southwards to...
a year ago
This map, via Smithsonian, shows the main passageways that the enslaved took southwards to freedom.
The southern Underground Railroad was less traveled and much less well documented, but Mexico after gaining independence passed strong anti-slavery laws. Even before that the...
Maps Mania
Your Hour-By-Hour Guide to Election Night
a month ago
Adventures In...
Close Encounters of the Cartographic Kind
I was watching the Steven Spielberg 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the...
7 months ago
I was watching the Steven Spielberg 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the family last night and nerded out when I saw a character that claimed to be a cartographer. I always do. It was the cartographer who recognized that the signals the aliens sent were...
Maps Mania
Europeans Profiting from American Deaths
5 months ago
Maps Mania
One Million Screenshots. One Map!
4 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
Automated Hachuring in QGIS
I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain...
5 months ago
I seem to have accidentally come up with a method for duplicating a centuries-old terrain representation technique. If you’ve looked at old maps, you’ve probably seen hachures: lines that run up and down along the slope of terrain features. There were a wide variety of approaches...
Map of the Week
Forest Fires All Over North America
This has been a remarkably heavy year for forest fires and it's still very early in the season. The...
a year ago
This has been a remarkably heavy year for forest fires and it's still very early in the season. The last few summers the West Coast has experienced many days of terrible air quality. This year the East Coast is experiencing it. Last week cities like New York, Philadelphia and...
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Sydney Railway Layout, c. 1940
Unearthed on Twitter (It’ll always be Twitter to me, no matter what Elon says) by @crossing_lights,...
a year ago
Unearthed on Twitter (It’ll always be Twitter to me, no matter what Elon says) by @crossing_lights, this is quite an extraordinary find. Long-time readers may have seen the 1939 version of this diagram (and the digital recreation that I made). Here’s the thing: the general...
Adventures In...
Storybook Cartography
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming...
a year ago
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming illustration style cartography? Ok! . . Children’s maps are a valuable thing. They are often the first impressions the world of geography has on every single one of us. What an...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Cicada Chase, Day 1
What would be a good present for someone who just graduated from college with a degree in...
7 months ago
What would be a good present for someone who just graduated from college with a degree in entomology? Well, how about a quick trip to the Midwest to hunt for bugs? May 2024 marked a special occasion that was well-reported (maybe over-reported) by the mainstream media: the...
Maps Mania
Have You Earned Your Air Pollution Stripes?
4 months ago
Adventures In...
Boost the Human Footprint in Imagery
The World Imagery Basemap is a lovely resource spanning the Earth in all directions at all scales....
3 months ago
The World Imagery Basemap is a lovely resource spanning the Earth in all directions at all scales. If you want to add a level of context you can always add a reference overlay. But what about baking a reference overlay into the imagery in a way that makes it look, like, sort of...
somethingaboutmaps
Conventional Cartographic Wisdom that I have Failed to Grasp
When I teach cartography, I am deliberate about not presenting my students with any rules. I do not...
a year ago
When I teach cartography, I am deliberate about not presenting my students with any rules. I do not want obedience to memorized maxims — instead, I simply tell them about practices that I think are good ideas, and then I offer an explanation of my reasoning. The students can...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 4 (Lewis & Clark Country)
We were now officially between races. A day earlier I ran a half-marathon in Pendleton, Oregon and I...
2 months ago
We were now officially between races. A day earlier I ran a half-marathon in Pendleton, Oregon and I had to do it again in Clarkston, Washington the following day. So this was the rest day, or at least it was for me. Most participants in the Mainly Marathons Northwest series...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 2 (Take a Walk)
Dayton is decently sized place with about 130,000 residents in the city proper and about 800,000 in...
8 months ago
Dayton is decently sized place with about 130,000 residents in the city proper and about 800,000 in the larger metropolitan area. So that makes it large enough for some attractions and urban amenities, but nobody would mistake it for a city that never sleeps. I figured I might...
Map of the Week
Huge Lego Model of the Lake District
Artist Jon Tordoff has made a 100 square foot, 200,000 piece (so far) Lego model of England's Lake...
a year ago
Artist Jon Tordoff has made a 100 square foot, 200,000 piece (so far) Lego model of England's Lake District.
via Getty Images
The model began as a pandemic recreation map of Buttermere, his favorite spot.
"Now I've come over the Honister Pass, up Borrowdale and I've got...
Adventures In...
Cartography Workshop in Utrecht, April 2024
I’m going to be in the Netherlands April 23, 2024, to spend a day nerding out on map making. I’ll be...
11 months ago
I’m going to be in the Netherlands April 23, 2024, to spend a day nerding out on map making. I’ll be a guest of Esri Netherlands, and will lead this workshop day, called “Mapping Magic with John Nelson” (no pressure). It’s a kickoff to their Esri Connect 2024 event. Here’s a...
Maps Mania
The Newest Maps of Mars - in 3D
6 months ago
Maps Mania
30 Days of Crashes in New York City
5 months ago
Musings on Maps
Perilous Waters
The voyage to the Titanic promoted cartographic fantasies of discovery and exploration, but only in...
a year ago
The voyage to the Titanic promoted cartographic fantasies of discovery and exploration, but only in international waters. The maps of legal oversight Stockton Rush avoided demand to be recognized as a creation of globalism, as much as a luxury diversion of the super-rich. ...
Map of the Week
Merry Gridmas!
Gridviz is a Javascript library for visualizing gridded (raster) data. They created a Christmas...
a week ago
Gridviz is a Javascript library for visualizing gridded (raster) data. They created a Christmas themed map showing land use with holiday emojis.
Also if you visit the Gridmas page you can watch the snow fall over Europe. You can pan and zoom around, however if you try to go...
James Cheshire
Anxiety and Mapping the Climate Crisis
Many of the maps I have created in recent years address the climate crisis and I’ve been asked a...
over a year ago
Many of the maps I have created in recent years address the climate crisis and I’ve been asked a number of times about if I feel powerless in the face of the data I’m showing. I reflect on this here with Kit Rackley. Our chat also in part inspired this article in The...
Maps Mania
The 46 States of America & Each State Flower
7 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 1 (Do-Over)
This was the trip we wanted to take last summer before our plans abruptly changed. Instead we went...
6 months ago
This was the trip we wanted to take last summer before our plans abruptly changed. Instead we went to Costa Rica for reasons I talked about before, and all of us had a wonderful time. Even so, I still felt bad that the younger kid lost out on the original destination. He wanted...
Maps Mania
The Rise & Fall of National Rail Networks
a year ago
Map of the Week
The Atlas of Design, Volume 7
Note to readers on this platform: I also publish this blog on Substack. You may find that the...
2 months ago
Note to readers on this platform: I also publish this blog on Substack. You may find that the pictures below show up a little better than here.
The Atlas of Design is a biannual production of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS). It highlights some of the...
Map of the Week
Mapping Etymology
Mapologies is a website that shows many interesting etymology maps such as this one showing the word...
8 months ago
Mapologies is a website that shows many interesting etymology maps such as this one showing the word for Earth throughout Europe-from their planets page.
The countries are color coded by the language family origins of the words. Here are peaches from the fruits page.
I like...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 4 (Venturing North)
The ultimate destination was Dayton, Ohio and it took about seven and a half hours to get there....
8 months ago
The ultimate destination was Dayton, Ohio and it took about seven and a half hours to get there. However we didn’t just sit in Dayton for an entire week. If I had to drive all that way you better believe I would do some County Counting along the way too. At this point I’ve...
Musings on Maps
Swing States, Battleground States and Hot Spots
Are the maps of President Trump's 2024 electoral evidence of a sudden shift or deep undercurrents of...
a month ago
Are the maps of President Trump's 2024 electoral evidence of a sudden shift or deep undercurrents of disaffection? The sudden partisan shift of voting maps suggest a dark undercurrents in American politics. Continue reading →
Map of the Week
Harry Beck's Famous Subway Map Goes Airborne
This map was published a month ago in the Londonist. Just about every other map blog has already...
a year ago
This map was published a month ago in the Londonist. Just about every other map blog has already picked up on it and I am late to the game. However, I've spent so much time looking at it that I think it's worth a visit even if you've already seen it. It was drawn by Harry Beck,...
Transit Maps
New Official Map: Los Angeles Metro with Regional Connector, 2023
Just dropped on the LA Metro Twitter account, here’s a first look at their new system map once the...
a year ago
Just dropped on the LA Metro Twitter account, here’s a first look at their new system map once the Regional Connector opens at noon, this Friday June 16. First off, one prediction I made in my previous review [October 2022] has been proven true: this map marks the end of the old...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Osage Orange
It seemed strange to fixate on a single tree for more than a decade but that’s exactly what...
a month ago
It seemed strange to fixate on a single tree for more than a decade but that’s exactly what happened. I notice it a few weeks every autumn and then quickly forget about it for another year. That all started sometime around 2013 when I began to ride a stretch of the Capital...
Map of the Week
The Incredible Shrinking Great Salt Lake(s)
NOTE: due to accidental deletions on this platform I have lost some of the original attributions for...
a year ago
NOTE: due to accidental deletions on this platform I have lost some of the original attributions for this post.
Here is a map of the paleo-lakes of the Great Basin from the Pleistocene Era.
The present day lakes are shown in lighter blue though even those have shrunk from the...
Maps Mania
Travel Times in the Roman & British Empires
a month ago
Map of the Week
The Black Atlantic
This map was created by Léopold Lambert to emphasize centrality of the Atlantic Ocean to the slave...
11 months ago
This map was created by Léopold Lambert to emphasize centrality of the Atlantic Ocean to the slave trade.
The map was created for an article in the Funambulist and was recently featured as a “Map of the Week” (yes there are others) for the American Geographical...
Map of the Week
The Salt Front
The salt front is the point where a river becomes too salty to be safe for drinking water. The front...
a month ago
The salt front is the point where a river becomes too salty to be safe for drinking water. The front moves upstream from the river’s mouth as less freshwater flows downstream to dilute it. I’d never heard of a salt front until I read about it in a recent article in...
Maps Mania
Virtual Indian Independence Day
4 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
Simple Oblique Views in Blender
While many people use my Blender shaded relief tutorial, and associate me with the software, I’m...
over a year ago
While many people use my Blender shaded relief tutorial, and associate me with the software, I’m really not much of a 3D cartographer. I make oblique-view maps only rarely, and when I do, it’s usually in a simplified, abstract style, rather than the detailed, naturalistic...
Adventures In...
Three Maps & the Truth
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each...
3 weeks ago
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each map is a collection of compromises, whether they’re geomatic (your projection and scale choices), editorial (your choice of subject and what you’ve chosen to show and not show), and...
Maps Mania
Florida's Waffle House Index Score
2 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 7 (Hodgepodge)
The Dayton trip came to an end but I still had a bunch of stuff to talk about that didn’t fit into...
8 months ago
The Dayton trip came to an end but I still had a bunch of stuff to talk about that didn’t fit into any of the earlier articles. Naturally I’ve collected them all together within this final compilation to serve as a wrap-up. Then we can call this one done and move onto the next...
Map of the Week
Where Your Christmas Tree Comes From
A recent map on maps.com (an Esri run map site) by Joshua Stevens shows where Christmas trees are...
a year ago
A recent map on maps.com (an Esri run map site) by Joshua Stevens shows where Christmas trees are grown.
The data is from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Each tree shaped spike represents a county. The most significant areas are in Oregon and North Carolina. If you click on...
Adventures In...
How to Make Features Illuminate an Underlying Basemap
Sure, we can make features look like they are glowing. But how can we make them look like they are...
a year ago
Sure, we can make features look like they are glowing. But how can we make them look like they are casting light on the basemap below? Here’s a silly little trick using crafty symbology and blend modes in ArcGIS Pro. In this case we’ll use glorious stork migration paths,...
Maps Mania
These are the Safest Cities in the World
7 months ago
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: TRAM d’Alacant Fare Zones, 2023
Submitted by Roberto, who says: I would like to share the TRAM d’Alacant fare zone map. It describes...
a year ago
Submitted by Roberto, who says: I would like to share the TRAM d’Alacant fare zone map. It describes the different zones and stops of this tramway/narrow gauge train in the Spanish province of Alacant (Alicante). It’s been reopened recently after six years of renovation works....
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge 2023 Days 3 9
Here’s what I’ve been working on for the past week’s 30 Day Map Challenges with the prompts...
a year ago
Here’s what I’ve been working on for the past week’s 30 Day Map Challenges with the prompts listed.
Day 3 - Polygons
This is not exactly a hand made map, more having fun with cutting boards. My wife gave me the Pennsylvania board a few years ago and I used it in the 2021...
Maps Mania
540 Million Years of Planet Earth
8 months ago
Maps Mania
The Interactive Turbulence Map
11 months ago
Map of the Week
The Coaquannock Map
I will begin Philadelphia month at an early stage, just before European settlement.
via...
a year ago
I will begin Philadelphia month at an early stage, just before European settlement.
via Historical Society of Pennsylvania
This 1934 map showing the homeland of the Lenape people when the first white settlers arrived in Philadelphia, was funded by the Works Progress...
Maps Mania
Mapping Every US Election Since 1840
3 months ago
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 2, Mountains
“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains. And then find somewhere where I can rest.” In...
10 months ago
“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains. And then find somewhere where I can rest.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Silver Line Extension
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened its eleven mile Silver Line extension on...
over a year ago
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened its eleven mile Silver Line extension on November 15, 2022. I couldn’t be there on opening day but I still wanted to check out the new stations while they were relatively “new.” So I checked in with my frequent travel...
Map of the Week
Pictorial Bird's Eye Map of Banff
Here is a really nice pictorial map of Banff, showing the mountains, rivers, railroads and...
a year ago
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.
Maps Mania
Global Climate Change Impacts
10 months ago
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Greater Copenhagen Rail Map, 2024
Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with...
5 months ago
Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with it, a much improved map compared to 2019 [My review of the 2019 map can be found here – Cam]. The Circle Line is now more spacious, junctions are labeled more clearly, and metro...
Maps Mania
When is the Coldest Day of the Year?
11 months ago
Musings on Maps
Floating Sargasso Sea
Mapped from the Canaries to the West Indies, against a blank background, the Sargassum Belt seems...
a year ago
Mapped from the Canaries to the West Indies, against a blank background, the Sargassum Belt seems removed from the levels of phosphorous of our coastal oceans leaving the high density of its thirteen million tons on a blank screen as the latest whacky disturbance of the...
Maps Mania
2½ Half Weeks with Mrs Rauer
11 months ago
Map of the Week
Middle Earth Transit Map
Hard to believe that those dumb hobbits risked their lives walking all the way to Mordor when they...
7 months ago
Hard to believe that those dumb hobbits risked their lives walking all the way to Mordor when they could have just taken the Orange Line.
Oh wait, the tunnel under the mountain is closed
so they would have had to switch to the Red Line at Bree and then made another...
somethingaboutmaps
Projection Cards: Now a Reality
A couple months back, I floated an idea for making some fun trading cards based on map projections....
over a year ago
A couple months back, I floated an idea for making some fun trading cards based on map projections. I’m very happy to report that several dozen of you responded and contributed designs to help make the set happen. I’ve been spending several weeks on managing everyone and working...
Adventures In...
Make this 3D printed globe please
Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place...
a year ago
Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place a stroopwafel over it until the caramel is nice and gooey and take the hand of other nearby geographers and sing O Denneboom together. Say, what’s with all the Dutch references?...
Map of the Week
Headwaters
When I see a river, I often think about where it comes from and where it goes. I started a mapping...
a year ago
When I see a river, I often think about where it comes from and where it goes. I started a mapping project showing this for the Northeastern United States. For the level of detail needed it was necessary to choose a manageable area so I chose where I've lived almost all of my...
Map of the Week
Innovation in Segregation
Before the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining maps encouraged segregation (documented...
a year ago
Before the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining maps encouraged segregation (documented extensively including on this blog), there was this 1934 map by property analyst J. M. Brewer. It showed real estate conditions in Philadelphia with a wary eye towards immigrants,...
Maps Mania
Mapping Mythical Islands & Imaginary Lands
a month ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 2 (Oahu: Beyond Waikiki)
I didn’t spend all of my limited time strictly within the confines of Waikiki Beach and downtown...
a year ago
I didn’t spend all of my limited time strictly within the confines of Waikiki Beach and downtown Honolulu. Whether work-related or during precious spare time I did explore more of southeastern Oahu than I had on my previous trip. Unfortunately I couldn’t linger much and truly...
Adventures In...
John Snow’s Cholera Map Reimagined
John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a...
a year ago
John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a visual connection between deaths and the locations of well pumps. It helped contribute to the idea that cholera was a water-borne disease and effectively marks the creation of the...
Adventures In...
Reimagining a classic Cheysson thematic map
There is no one right way to make a map. Especially data-heavy thematic maps. In that spirit my...
a year ago
There is no one right way to make a map. Especially data-heavy thematic maps. In that spirit my friend and colleague Ken Field recently challenged Sarah Bell and I to each re-imagine a few wonderful classic maps. This is a tall order, but I found some comfort and encouragement...
Adventures In...
Imagery basemap ready for data
Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what...
a year ago
Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what the ground looks like at any location. And while this sort of context can be incredibly useful, it can also wreck the way we see and understand thematic data that is draped over it....
Map of the Week
Some Maps in the Wild: Nova Scotia Edition
There is an entire web site dedicated to #MapsintheWild - also a social media hashtag. On a recent...
a year ago
There is an entire web site dedicated to #MapsintheWild - also a social media hashtag. On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, I found some very nice examples, including last week's post. Here are a few more.
There are many memorials throughout the province to the Acadians who were...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 1 (Intentions and Observations)
This was supposed to be the younger kid’s trip. It was his turn to select a destination — anywhere...
a year ago
This was supposed to be the younger kid’s trip. It was his turn to select a destination — anywhere in the world — as a present for his upcoming high school graduation next year. The older one chose Australia back in 2018 and we expanded it to include New Zealand too. England...
somethingaboutmaps
Take the 2024 Freelance Mapper Survey
Friends and colleagues, it’s time once again for the survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct every...
9 months ago
Friends and colleagues, it’s time once again for the survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct every two years. We ask people who do freelance mapping work about their fees and other business practices, in order to help bring more transparency to our little niche of the world, and...
James Cheshire
COVID inquiry heard Boris Johnson ‘struggled’ with graphs – if you do too, here are some tips
James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific...
a year ago
James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, presented to the nation a graph showing “the shape of an epidemic”. The red line depicting the number of predicted COVID cases rose to a steep peak before...
somethingaboutmaps
A New Take on an Old Style
Gentle readers, I have some exciting things to share with you. After several months of tinkering and...
2 months ago
Gentle readers, I have some exciting things to share with you. After several months of tinkering and toolmaking, I have created a series of posters of iconic peaks (and other terrain), illustrated in a sketch style inspired by old hachure drawings. There are 37 designs to choose...
Map of the Week
Protein Survey Map
While looking for unrelated items I came across this 1920's Protein Survey Map of Western...
a year ago
While looking for unrelated items I came across this 1920's Protein Survey Map of Western Canada.
Wondering what any of this means, I did some research and discovered that protein refers to the gluten content of wheat. In the early 1900's flour mills began classifying their...
Maps Mania
The Riskiest Places to Live in America
6 months ago
Maps Mania
Russia's Secret Nuclear Targets in China
4 months ago
Map of the Week
Your Climate in 60 Years
This fall's supercharged hurricanes are a reminder that despite the dishonest rhetoric coming from...
2 months ago
This fall's supercharged hurricanes are a reminder that despite the dishonest rhetoric coming from top Republican politicians, global warming is definitely not a hoax. The University of Maryland has a new mapping tool to show you where on earth your climate will most resemble in...
Maps Mania
Out of Africa - The Story of Human Migration
6 months ago
Maps Mania
Which Country Most Resembles Your Country?
a year ago
Transit Maps
Fantasy Map: Washington Commanders 2023 “Season Map”
Posted yesterday on the Commanders’ Twitter account, here’s a Washington Metro-themed map of the...
a year ago
Posted yesterday on the Commanders’ Twitter account, here’s a Washington Metro-themed map of the team’s 2023 season. It basically just places the team’s opponents for the year on a vaguely US-shaped map using some Metro iconography and colours and calls it a day. It’s...
Map of the Week
Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA
Coming out this summer from Belt Publishing (publishers of the "50 Maps" book series on Cleveland,...
7 months ago
Coming out this summer from Belt Publishing (publishers of the "50 Maps" book series on Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo) is the Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA.
"Ferguson, Missouri, became the epicenter of America’s racial tensions
after the 2014 murder of Michael Brown and the...
somethingaboutmaps
Journey’s End
Nearly five years ago, I completed a project that, to my mind, remains the most significant of my...
a week ago
Nearly five years ago, I completed a project that, to my mind, remains the most significant of my cartographic career: An Atlas of Great Lakes Islands, manually printed in cyanotype, with a hand-stitched binding. I wanted to share this project with all of you, but there were only...
Maps Mania
The Supply Chain of Deforestation
10 months ago
Maps Mania
America's Changing Plant Hardiness Zones
a year ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 1 (The Wright Stuff)
When people have asked, I’ve told them with a straight face that we didn’t go to Daytona for Spring...
9 months ago
When people have asked, I’ve told them with a straight face that we didn’t go to Daytona for Spring Break, no, we went to Dayton. As in Ohio. As in probably the least likely Spring Break destination in the United States. We managed to avoid warm weather, sandy beaches, and...
Maps Mania
The Distressed Communities of America
10 months ago
Adventures In...
Layout sandwich
Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and...
a year ago
Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and the graticule is relegated only to the oceans. Because that looks cool! Mapping has a long and handsome history of neatlines that are interrupted by bits of land spilling over it,...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 1 (Oahu: Honolulu Waterfront)
Most of my work trips are pretty mundane. The last three were rather typical — Philadelphia, Tampa...
a year ago
Most of my work trips are pretty mundane. The last three were rather typical — Philadelphia, Tampa and Atlanta — for example. Sometimes I go to more interesting places like my quick jaunt to Germany a few years ago. However, this time I hit the jackpot: Hawaii, Japan, and South...
Map of the Week
Planning for the Next Eclipse
Maybe you saw Monday's eclipse and were impressed enough to want to travel to see another one or...
8 months ago
Maybe you saw Monday's eclipse and were impressed enough to want to travel to see another one or maybe you missed it because life got in the way or you couldn't justify the time and expense of travel. Or, maybe you're like me and foolishly traveled to Rochester, New York where...
Map of the Week
Nice Eclipse Maps - Part 2
As promised from last week's post here are a couple additional sites that nicely visualize the path...
9 months ago
As promised from last week's post here are a couple additional sites that nicely visualize the path of next month's eclipse. The first one is from Bloomberg, How to Find the Best Cities to Watch the Eclipse. One of the best things about this page is that it starts with an...
Adventures In...
How to Make a Hexagonal Cartogram in ArcGIS Pro
Of course maps are just the most fascinating and information dense graphical information products...
9 months ago
Of course maps are just the most fascinating and information dense graphical information products around…in my unbiased opinion. I can, and do, go on and on about the deep and pervasive benefits of spatial representations. But…well…sometimes a map, strictly speaking, can have...
Maps Mania
Backdrop - the Ultimate Challenge
8 months ago
Maps Mania
The Chain Restaurants of America
10 months ago
Maps Mania
1000+ Streets Called Washington
6 months ago
Adventures In...
Find and download vintage USGS topo maps
The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of...
6 months ago
The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of over 180,000 beautiful vintage USGS topo maps! Use this updated Living Atlas app to geographically browse, download, export, and even animate, these cartographic objects of joy....
Transit Maps
Submission – Unofficial Map: Tramways in Gdańsk, Poland by Arsen Mosiichuk, 2024
Submitted by Arsen, who says: Hello, this summer I with Sergey Steblina as art-director designed a...
2 weeks ago
Submitted by Arsen, who says: Hello, this summer I with Sergey Steblina as art-director designed a transit map of Gdańsk trams. I am very interested what Transit Maps think about this. Transit Maps says: Overall, this is very solid and clean work – very much in the style of...
somethingaboutmaps
A Free eBook of Terrain Lines
Friends, earlier this week I mentioned that I’d completed a whole bunch of terrain sketches using...
2 months ago
Friends, earlier this week I mentioned that I’d completed a whole bunch of terrain sketches using some novel techniques that allowed me to create a hachure drawing style from digital elevation data. If you’d like to see the whole set, I’ve now assembled them into a quick eBook...
Map of the Week
The Whataburger Power Outage Map
When Hurricane Beryl struck Texas last week it left nearly 2 million Houston area residents and...
5 months ago
When Hurricane Beryl struck Texas last week it left nearly 2 million Houston area residents and businesses without power. Local power company Center Point Energy's online power outage map has been unavailable since May. Social media user BBQBryan noted that Texas based...
Map of the Week
Indigenous Languages-Part 3
Here is part 3 in what was meant to be a two part series. In between my last two posts, Vivid Maps...
11 months ago
Here is part 3 in what was meant to be a two part series. In between my last two posts, Vivid Maps posted a map of indigenous languages. I think this was just a coincidence. I only saw their post yesterday and I don't think they saw or were reacting to what I posted. Anyway this...
James Cheshire
If Data Could Talk Podcast
We sat down with Andy Cotgreave for the If Data Could Talk podcast to give some behind the scenes...
over a year ago
We sat down with Andy Cotgreave for the If Data Could Talk podcast to give some behind the scenes insights about our collaborative process and some of the work that went into Atlas of the Invisible.
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge 2024-Part 2
Here is the second half of the 30 Day Map Challenge. The one where I don’t make anything but just...
4 weeks ago
Here is the second half of the 30 Day Map Challenge. The one where I don’t make anything but just sit back and enjoy the work of others. The first half of the month was reviewed here.
I will start on Day 23 where the prompt was memory. There were quite a few good entries for this...
Transit Maps
Submission – Fantasy Map: Tram Network for Bristol, England by Elliott Sargent
Submitted by Elliott, who says: I’ve been a fan of your work for a while now, and thought I’d submit...
a year ago
Submitted by Elliott, who says: I’ve been a fan of your work for a while now, and thought I’d submit my own work for judgement. I’ve had a crack at designing a map for an as-yet non-existent tram and bus network for Bristol, UK, a city in dire need of reliable, integrated public...
somethingaboutmaps
Challenging the Idea of a Bad Map
We’re just a couple of weeks away from the 30 Day Map Challenge, an annual celebration of...
a year ago
We’re just a couple of weeks away from the 30 Day Map Challenge, an annual celebration of cartographic creativity. I know some of you are already brainstorming about what you might do this year. Each day has a prompt, and you’re encouraged to make a map that day that is based on...
Map of the Week
Make the Desert Bloom
Tomas Pueyo has an idea to help combat global warming and rising seas. His idea is to create new...
a year ago
Tomas Pueyo has an idea to help combat global warming and rising seas. His idea is to create new seas by flooding several below sea level basins, such as the Dead Sea or Death Valley with seawater to create or enlarge inland seas. Here is an image from his Substack pages showing...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 5 (Isle of Purbeck)
Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck isn’t an island it’s a peninsula. It was probably more isolated and...
5 months ago
Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck isn’t an island it’s a peninsula. It was probably more isolated and difficult to reach in previous centuries. So maybe it felt like an island to people back when the English Channel was the primary “road” to the outside world. Even now it’s a...
Map of the Week
This One
This one map (via New York Times) tells you quite a bit about what happened in the U.S. Election on...
a month ago
This one map (via New York Times) tells you quite a bit about what happened in the U.S. Election on Tuesday.
Aside from a few strange outliers (western Oklahoma, suburban Atlanta, northwest Michigan) The "red shift" happened across all regions and demographics. Hard to look at...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
From Skyline to Valley
A family friend had a big round-number birthday recently and we drove down to Central Virginia for...
over a year ago
A family friend had a big round-number birthday recently and we drove down to Central Virginia for the celebration. Meanwhile, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to add to my various travel lists so I wondered how might I combine the two. I thought about county counting...
Transit Maps
Submission – Unofficial Map: Arendal Region Transit Map, Norway by Hazael
Hi! I made this transit diagram myself. I saw there was no “real” map with all the stations for the...
4 months ago
Hi! I made this transit diagram myself. I saw there was no “real” map with all the stations for the region of Arendal in Norway, so I decided to do this project. I would love to read your comments and criticisms! Transit Maps says: There’s a lot to like about this diagram – a...
Maps Mania
Mapping the Route of the Adriana Disaster
a year ago
Maps Mania
Every Basketball Court on Google Maps
3 months ago
Map of the Week
The Auschwitz Exhibition
This past weekend I saw a traveling exhibition in Boston about the Auschwitz concentration camp. It...
3 months ago
This past weekend I saw a traveling exhibition in Boston about the Auschwitz concentration camp. It contains over 700 objects from shoes to gas masks to implements of torture and experimentation. The exhibit was co-produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and has been in...
Adventures In...
5 Minutes to Make a Map!
We’ve all been there. A request comes in and you don’t have a lot of time. Like 5 or 10 minutes....
10 months ago
We’ve all been there. A request comes in and you don’t have a lot of time. Like 5 or 10 minutes. What! Ok, ok, be cool, this is going to be ok. Just breathe…and think. Think. Yes, we’ve got this. We’ve got the tools and the resources to crank out a serviceable map in the amount …
Maps Mania
Exploring London Through the Artist's Eye
5 months ago
Musings on Maps
“We Like Fighting Games”
As he waited rather glumly for “the Feds” to arrive at his home, as his stepfather predicted, Airman...
a year ago
As he waited rather glumly for “the Feds” to arrive at his home, as his stepfather predicted, Airman First Class Jack Douglas Teixiera may have pondered why he had posted classified maps of heated battle fronts in the Ukraine War … Continue reading →
Map of the Week
Pittsburgh Week
This week I am attending the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) meeting in...
a year ago
This week I am attending the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) meeting in Pittsburgh so I haven't had time for a proper blog post. There's lots of great stuff here that may make for future blog posts but in the meantime here are a few random maps I've come...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 3 (Apalachicola)
Next we began the actual “road” portion of the road trip as Atlanta receded into the distance behind...
a year ago
Next we began the actual “road” portion of the road trip as Atlanta receded into the distance behind us. We spaced our drives into four segments of 5-6 hours each to make them manageable. I figured that would cover a decent distance without consuming the entire day. The first leg...
Map of the Week
Snickelways of York
Note: In May, I spent some time traveling through England. This is the first of maybe several posts...
6 months ago
Note: In May, I spent some time traveling through England. This is the first of maybe several posts from that trip.
In York, England a snickelway is a narrow passageway variously referred to as a"snicket", "gimmel" or "alleyway", the word being a combination of all of these. Mark...
Map of the Week
Emancipation National Historic Trail
It took over two years for the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston, Texas. Specifically...
6 months ago
It took over two years for the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston, Texas. Specifically June 19, 1965 hence the Juneteenth holiday. Galveston was the largest slave market west of New Orleans. The newly emancipated fled Galveston to Freedmen's Town and other parts of...
Maps Mania
2024's Climate Tipping Points
11 months ago
Maps Mania
Unlocking America’s Visual Time Machine
a year ago
Map of the Week
The Climate Impact of Your Neighborhood
This latest New York Times interactive map shows how people who live closer in to city centers have...
over a year ago
This latest New York Times interactive map shows how people who live closer in to city centers have a relatively small carbon footprint, while those who live further out have some of the largest footprints in the nation.
While that may not be surprising by itself there are some...
Adventures In...
How to emboss an imagery basemap
Ah the simple pleasures of the World Imagery basemap. So much earth. So much imagery. So many...
a year ago
Ah the simple pleasures of the World Imagery basemap. So much earth. So much imagery. So many corners of this world to explore. How can we take something so verdant and charming and just ratchet it up to eleven? We’ll use a water mask and some layer effects, that’s how! 0:00...
Map of the Week
A Blue Map of China
This past weekend I finally got to the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library to see...
4 months ago
This past weekend I finally got to the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library to see their exhibit, Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China on one of its final days. Yes, I should have visited months ago when I could have encouraged readers to see it but though they...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 6 (Houston)
The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit...
a year ago
The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius). Here my hybrid working vacation transitioned completely to pure work for a day. That’s where I needed to attend meetings at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 4 (Bristol)
In retrospect we probably should have done this as an overnight trip. As we soon learned, there’s no...
5 months ago
In retrospect we probably should have done this as an overnight trip. As we soon learned, there’s no fast, direct way to drive from Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck to Bristol (map). Google says it should take a couple of hours in optimal conditions which sounds doable, if a bit slow....
Musings on Maps
A Global Landscape of Growing Glacial Loss
With frozen glaciers disappearing into the oceans at an unprecedented rate, the rise of an...
a year ago
With frozen glaciers disappearing into the oceans at an unprecedented rate, the rise of an ecotourism of glacier viewing is hardly unexpected. But the rise of new heights of glacial melt that are feared for much of the arctic this … Continue reading →
Maps Mania
The Presidential Medal of Cartography
4 months ago
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