Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 10 (More Typical London)
Unlike the previous day, we focused our final full London day on places more regularly associated...
4 months ago
Unlike the previous day, we focused our final full London day on places more regularly associated with typical tourists. Sometimes we do that. Occasionally I displayed my normal geo-oddity proclivities but mostly it was about cramming as much as possible into the hours before...
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...
GeoCurrents
Fernand Braudel: The Greatest Geographer of the Twentieth Century?
[Today’s post is the text of an oral presentation that I recently gave at a Stanford-Berkeley...
a week ago
[Today’s post is the text of an oral presentation that I recently gave at a Stanford-Berkeley Symposium on the legacy of the French historian Fernand Braudel.] In 1981, I entered the graduate program in geography at U.C. Berkeley and found myself in a war zone. The traditionalist...
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...
Musings on Maps
The Dystopia of Diagolon: Irrational Cartographies of Secession
The quandary of our own abundant if not inexhaustible repertoire of mapping abilities and skills of...
over a year ago
The quandary of our own abundant if not inexhaustible repertoire of mapping abilities and skills of visualization are tried by the spread of COVID-19. As dashboards, news agencies, and media offered new maps and staked new skills of mapping, maps … Continue reading →
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...
Maps Mania
The Rise & Fall of National Rail Networks
a year ago
Map of the Week
Earth Transit
Earth Transit is a project by Zhaoxu Sui showing the major passenger rail lines of the world.
In...
a year ago
Earth Transit is a project by Zhaoxu Sui showing the major passenger rail lines of the world.
In his own words "This is the beta version, which means a lot of errors and mistakes could
be on the map, please give me corrections and suggestions so that I can
improve." Lines are...
Maps Mania
The Street Names of Budapest
10 months ago
Maps Mania
Mapping Marine Light and Noise Pollution
a week ago
GeoCurrents
The Historical Geography of Psychoactive Substances: GeoCurrents Lecture Series on YouTube
GeoCurrents has been on a long summer hiatus as I have reconsidered my plans for the site. As I have...
3 months ago
GeoCurrents has been on a long summer hiatus as I have reconsidered my plans for the site. As I have retired from academia, one of my main goals is to convert my old lecture courses into publicly accessible YouTube lecture series. To do so, I have revived an all-but-forgotten...
Map of the Week
Maps of Julian Hoffman Anton
I'm always excited to find new cartographic artists. Here are some maps from Julian Hoffman Anton....
a year ago
I'm always excited to find new cartographic artists. Here are some maps from Julian Hoffman Anton. The first one is his Tokyo Eat Map. I've cropped the map a bit to fit the format of this page. To see it all click here.
This is really a heat map showing restaurant density. Egg...
Adventures In...
The Bounding Box Podcast
The one where I chat with Rene Rubalcava about the importance of unstructured data-play, the risk of...
a year ago
The one where I chat with Rene Rubalcava about the importance of unstructured data-play, the risk of metrics becoming the goal, where to find inspiration, brewing chaos into professional development, and loving our neighbors!
Transit Maps
New Official Map: San Francisco Muni Metro Map with Central Subway
This map has actually been out for a while, but today – celebrating the full opening of the Central...
a year ago
This map has actually been out for a while, but today – celebrating the full opening of the Central Subway – seemed like the appropriate day to post about it. Design-wise, this is very much an evolution of previous efforts (see my review of the post-COVID resumption of service...
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...
Map of the Week
Suginami Walking Tours
Suginami is a ward on the west side of Tokyo. The Experience Suginami web page features a series of...
a year ago
Suginami is a ward on the west side of Tokyo. The Experience Suginami web page features a series of walks and tours with some nice maps.
The Historical Walk shows not only the shrines and gardens of the neighborhood, but also shows where you can get ramen and "healthy" soy...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Cumberland Parkway Time Zone Crossing
Time Zone crossings in the United States generally happen at state borders which of course are...
12 months ago
Time Zone crossings in the United States generally happen at state borders which of course are easily recognizable landmarks. So you simply cross the state line and you change your watch. No big deal. Unfortunately Time Zones cut right through the middle of some states, like...
Maps Mania
The Global Problem of Forever Chemicals
a year ago
Maps Mania
135,000 Years of Changing Sea Levels
a year ago
Maps Mania
Flip Off the World with Street View
9 months ago
Adventures In...
Vintage Retro Old-School 1890s Basemap for ArcGIS Pro
Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look...
4 months ago
Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look out of place in 1890. Except that you wouldn’t have anywhere to plug in your monitor so it would be hard to show it to people back then. Ok bring a small generator. Wait, all these …
Map of the Week
The Grand Paris Express
I was recently in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) when I came across this...
a year ago
I was recently in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) when I came across this fantastic exhibit on the Grand Paris Express. The GPE is a hugely ambitious project to add several metro ring lines connecting the suburbs of Paris to each other and to the central...
Map of the Week
The Black Atlantic
This map was created by Léopold Lambert to emphasize centrality of the Atlantic Ocean to the slave...
10 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
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...
2 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...
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
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...
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge-Admiring the Work of Others
For the past several years November for me has meant working on the 30 Day Map Challenge. This year...
a month ago
For the past several years November for me has meant working on the 30 Day Map Challenge. This year I’ve been too busy to participate - also I really needed a break from it. Not participating means I’ve been able to admire the work of other cartographers. Here are some highlights...
Maps Mania
Travel Times in the Roman & British Empires
3 weeks ago
Maps Mania
The 2024 World Press Freedom Rankings
7 months ago
Maps Mania
Reconstructing a Plane Crash
11 months ago
Map of the Week
New Sweden
New Sweden was the first European colony in the Delaware Valley, established in 1638. It was a short...
a year ago
New Sweden was the first European colony in the Delaware Valley, established in 1638. It was a short lived colony meant to be Sweden's answer to the New Netherland colony (now New York).
via Wikipedia
"Nya Sverige" or "Niew Sweden" was originally proposed by Peter Minuit,...
Maps Mania
China vs America - World Influence Map
3 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 9 (Atypical London)
Before we left on our trip to England I promised everyone in the family that we would visit at least...
4 months ago
Before we left on our trip to England I promised everyone in the family that we would visit at least one thing they absolutely wanted to see. We completed that for the younger kid at Tankfest. Two more bucket list destinations happened during our first full day in London. We’re...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Kaiserslautern
I hope to stay longer than 72 hours the next time I visit Germany. I don’t recommend such a short...
7 months ago
I hope to stay longer than 72 hours the next time I visit Germany. I don’t recommend such a short visit. However I went there for work as I do occasionally, and I had no choice. So that’s what I did. I landed in Frankfurt on Monday, drove down to Kaiserslautern, stayed through...
Maps Mania
The Sad State of Local News 2023
10 months ago
Maps Mania
I'm Sending You Back to the Future!
4 weeks ago
Map of the Week
Countries with Women Leaders
Here is a map from the Washington Post, via Reddit showing countries past & present with women as...
a month ago
Here is a map from the Washington Post, via Reddit showing countries past & present with women as heads of state. Click it (and then again) for higher resolution.
We in the United States like to think we are the most advanced country in the world but by this metric we are well...
Maps Mania
How Big is Your Country's CO2 Footprint?
a month ago
Map of the Week
The Liverpool Overhead Railway
I found this cool strip map of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the first elevated electric railway...
a year ago
I found this cool strip map of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the first elevated electric railway in the world. It opened in 1893 and was dismantled in 1957 because the company could not afford to make the necessary repairs. This map is dated "c1938".
via Flickr
According...
GeoCurrents
Lectures on Psychoactive Substances Available on YouTube
Dear Readers, I have now posted all 21 video lectures of the GeoCurrents series on the Historical...
3 months ago
Dear Readers, I have now posted all 21 video lectures of the GeoCurrents series on the Historical Geography of Natural Psychoactive Substances, which can be found here. Each lecture is illustrated with maps, diagrams, photographs, and so on. Most are roughly one hour in length....
Map of the Week
Thirty Day Map Challenge 2023-Days 17-23
Another week of 30 Day Map Challenge Maps…
Day 17 - Flow
Probably the intention here was to have...
a year ago
Another week of 30 Day Map Challenge Maps…
Day 17 - Flow
Probably the intention here was to have people make maps of the flow of surface water or air or traffic but I decided to make a flow chart instead.
A vaguely interesting look at the trip home I had to make many times as...
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...
Maps Mania
The Easter Bunny's Egg-cellent Adventure
8 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...
5 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...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Detour to Ashtabula
About two and a half years ago I planned to capture three unvisited counties at the far northeastern...
6 months ago
About two and a half years ago I planned to capture three unvisited counties at the far northeastern corner of Ohio. Unfortunately it didn’t happen due to a snowstorm that dumped about a foot of snow on the target area. So instead I changed my plans and focused on Michigan’s...
Map of the Week
My Favorite New Jersey Drone Map
Here is my favorite “map” showing the drone hysteria over New Jersey. It’s from Instagram...
4 days ago
Here is my favorite “map” showing the drone hysteria over New Jersey. It’s from Instagram user wmh_x_0, aka Oona Harrigan.
It is based on these maps of drone sightings that have been going around the internet.
The “globe” text is there because she is known for designing sad...
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...
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...
somethingaboutmaps
2024 Freelance Rate Survey Results
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer...
2 months ago
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer rates and business practices! Our apologies for the delay in posting the results; life has been busy for both Aly and myself. Before we get to the survey results, here are some handy...
Maps Mania
The Best Graphics Team in the World
4 months ago
Adventures In...
Puget Sound 3D block diagram
Here’s a map of the Puget Sound area that I made a couple years ago for presentations to folks in...
11 months ago
Here’s a map of the Puget Sound area that I made a couple years ago for presentations to folks in the US northwest. Recently I wanted to work some more at labeling in a 3D environment and found this to be a handy target. Additionally, I thought it would be fun to make more use …
somethingaboutmaps
The Dream Lives
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you...
a month ago
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you can support by giving me money. And I promise I’ll get back to less commercial musings as time goes on. But for now, I also want to alert you to a way you can give other people...
Musings on Maps
“He Could Easily Destroy Us”
Tucker Carlson's move to Twitter led him to celebrate it as the last preserve of free speech. But...
a year ago
Tucker Carlson's move to Twitter led him to celebrate it as the last preserve of free speech. But his relation to speech was long slippery, best reflected on the heuristic display of the 2016 electoral map that was the logo of the pundit's nightly show's and its guiding...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 4 (Brew Day)
We hadn’t visited any breweries in the first several days but that was about to change. It turns out...
a year ago
We hadn’t visited any breweries in the first several days but that was about to change. It turns out Costa Rica has a fairly lively craft brewery scene and we were moving into an area rich with them. Several fell within our direct path between La Fortuna and Tamarindo and that...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 7 (On To Monteverde)
Next we began our trek to Monteverde, into Costa Rica’s famed Cloud Forest. This is one of the...
a year ago
Next we began our trek to Monteverde, into Costa Rica’s famed Cloud Forest. This is one of the nation’s smallest microclimates and one of its most intriguing. High in the mountains, a thick blanket of fog frequently envelopes the landscape and creates a gentile moisture. A steady...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 7 (Hill Country)
The extended road trip finally arrived at its western terminus in the Texas Hill Country. This also...
a year ago
The extended road trip finally arrived at its western terminus in the Texas Hill Country. This also marked my first visit to Burnet County, a rural locale situated northwest of Austin. Locals pronounce it something like BURN-it, and that’s how it felt as the mercury hit 103°...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Cicada Chase, Day 2
The first day of cicada chasing exceeded expectations and we hoped for similar results on the...
6 months ago
The first day of cicada chasing exceeded expectations and we hoped for similar results on the second. However the weather began to change overnight with downpours possible during daylight hours. Local meteorologists predicted a line of thunderstorms rolling through the Midwest,...
Transit Maps
Submission – New Official Map: UTA Rail and BRT Map, 2023
Submitted by Browne, who says: UTA, the primary transit provider for northern Utah, has officially...
a year ago
Submitted by Browne, who says: UTA, the primary transit provider for northern Utah, has officially launched its newest BRT service, and with it, a new transit map. The OGX is a new BRT route from Ogden Central Station, downtown, Weber State University, and down to McKay-Dee...
Maps Mania
Alien Arrivals Nosedive in 2023!
10 months ago
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Trams of Brisbane, Queensland, 1957
A simple but nicely drawn map of tram services in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1957. The lack...
a year ago
A simple but nicely drawn map of tram services in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1957. The lack of any sort of key for the routes means that users need to have some familiarity with the city to decipher where trams might go. The pamphlet that the map is part of includes...
Maps Mania
The National Stereotypes Maps - Part Two
a year ago
Map of the Week
Ice Flows in Greenland
The Atlas of the Invisible was published a few years ago. The maps show trends in the earth’s...
a week ago
The Atlas of the Invisible was published a few years ago. The maps show trends in the earth’s climate and demographics that are largely hidden to the naked eye. I never got a chance to review it but was recently struck by this visualization.
A detailed description of the...
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...
Map of the Week
The Alphabet Railway
Radio personality Bill Barry was fascinated with the place names of his native Saskatchewan. So much...
a year ago
Radio personality Bill Barry was fascinated with the place names of his native Saskatchewan. So much so that he wrote a Dictionary of Saskatchewan Place Names, I'm sure you've probably read it already but an interesting item about this toponymy is how many of the towns were...
Maps Mania
There are 2,773 stories in the Naked City
9 months ago
Maps Mania
Tracking American Spies in Germany
5 months ago
Map of the Week
Map for Bloomsday
I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce, few people have. Even fewer have understood it. To honor the...
6 months ago
I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce, few people have. Even fewer have understood it. To honor the annual Bloomsday festival going on right now, here is a map showing the wanderings and locations within the book. The map about as easy to understand as the plot itself.
I have...
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...
3 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...
James Cheshire
Newspapers and the 1976 Drought
With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase:...
over a year ago
With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase: ‘it was this hot in 1976’. Of course it wasn’t, and crucially the planet overall was not as hot then as it is now. Parts of the UK media have had their part to play in fueling...
Maps Mania
The Newest Maps of Mars - in 3D
6 months ago
Transit Maps
Unofficial Maps: Two new takes on the London Underground by Kenneth Field
Back in 2019, Ken showcased an experimental alternative Tube Map based on a diamond motif (read the...
a year ago
Back in 2019, Ken showcased an experimental alternative Tube Map based on a diamond motif (read the Transit Maps review here) that had mixed reactions from the community. He went away and absorbed that feedback, and – like a glutton for punishment – he’s back with not one, but...
Transit Maps
Book Review: “Iconic Transit Maps” by Mark Ovenden, 2024
After 2003’s Metro Maps of the World and 2015’s Transit Maps of the World (our review here), this is...
6 days ago
After 2003’s Metro Maps of the World and 2015’s Transit Maps of the World (our review here), this is Mark Ovenden’s third offering on the subject of global transit maps and diagrams. The question to be asked, then, is simply – is a new book on the same subject worth it? In a...
Adventures In...
Historical Topo Map Explorer (beta)
The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer is getting an update, and you can try out this new beta...
a year ago
The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer is getting an update, and you can try out this new beta version, here: LivingAtlas.ArcGIS.com/TopoMapExplorer The United States Geological Survey has a rich history of creating exquisite topographic quadrangle maps. These topo maps are...
Maps Mania
Tracking Russia's 'Dark' Shadow Ships
3 months ago
Transit Maps
Submission – New Official Map: “Harmonized” Montréal Metropolitan Transit Services Map, 2023
A flurry of people have submitted this brand new map out of Montréal for review, so let’s get...
a year ago
A flurry of people have submitted this brand new map out of Montréal for review, so let’s get straight to it! First of all, it’s important to note that is part of a new suite of maps and wayfinding signage that’s been in development since 2018, Using Montréal’s iconic “black...
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....
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 7 (Tankfest)
Finally the single event that justified our entire trip to England arrived, the renowned Tankfest....
4 months ago
Finally the single event that justified our entire trip to England arrived, the renowned Tankfest. It’s everything the name implies, a festival of military tanks, and it happens only once a year on the grounds of the Tank Museum in Bovington (map). This is what the younger kid...
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...
Maps Mania
Reconstructing the Ancient Trade Routes
11 months 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...
Maps Mania
America's Disappearing Birds
11 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 1 (Staging)
Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho...
2 months ago
Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho Panhandle? A little research suggested the Inland Northwest, or perhaps a now lesser-used designation, the Inland Empire (not to be confused with a similarly named area of...
Maps Mania
Today's Global Heating Forecast
6 months ago
Maps Mania
A Map of the World's Deadliest Epidemics
a year ago
Maps Mania
Your Hour-By-Hour Guide to Election Night
a month ago
Map of the Week
US Oil and Gas Pipelines
Felt is a nice web mapping app that anyone can use to get a map and add your own data, mark it up...
a year ago
Felt is a nice web mapping app that anyone can use to get a map and add your own data, mark it up and share with others. One of their most interesting example maps is this map of oil and gas pipelines.
Oil pipelines are in blue and natural gas is orange. I would have reversed...
Maps Mania
These are the Safest Cities in the World
6 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 →
Maps Mania
The World's Most Controversial Interactive Map
10 months ago
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...
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
Piecing the World Back Together
4 months ago
Maps Mania
Racial Covenants in Santa Clara Properties
2 months ago
Adventures In...
Add Multiple Maps to One Layout
Of course Alaska and Hawaii are glorious places, beloved by all for their lovely inhabitants and...
3 months ago
Of course Alaska and Hawaii are glorious places, beloved by all for their lovely inhabitants and majestic natural environs. It would be an error of omission should they not appear in a map of the United States, but it would also be a shame to shoe-horn them in looking sad with an...
somethingaboutmaps
Another Atlas of Minor Projects
A few years ago, I compiled a PDF of various small odds-and-ends mapping projects that I’d done....
10 months ago
A few years ago, I compiled a PDF of various small odds-and-ends mapping projects that I’d done. Now, I’ve done it again. Please enjoy Another Atlas of Minor Projects, which houses a few dozen cartographic items that needed a home. These are all small, mostly-quick projects that...
Maps Mania
The Right-Wing Terrorism Map
10 months ago
Map of the Week
Thirty Day Map Challenge 2023-Days 24-30
The final installment of this year’s 30 Day Map Challenge.
Day 24 - Black and White
I had no...
a year ago
The final installment of this year’s 30 Day Map Challenge.
Day 24 - Black and White
I had no thoughts ahead of time on this one. I wanted to do something with raster data and the easy, quick thing (this often requires taking the easy and quick route) was to grab the Natural...
Maps Mania
Virtual Indian Independence Day
4 months ago
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...
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....
Maps Mania
Geotripper - the Traveling Salesman Game
2 weeks ago
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...
Musings on Maps
Fifteen Two-Hundred Pound Bombs
Dropping at least fifteen two hundred pound bombs equipped with precision guidance systems–bunker...
2 months ago
Dropping at least fifteen two hundred pound bombs equipped with precision guidance systems–bunker busters that could penetrate deep underground and flatten built structures–that killed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and much of his high command follows a terrifying explosion of...
Map of the Week
Nicknames of the States
Here's a strange one: An 1884 promotional map for a company that manufactured hog rings (like nose...
7 months ago
Here's a strange one: An 1884 promotional map for a company that manufactured hog rings (like nose rings for hogs, you can read more about those here, if you can stomach a little animal cruelty).
Each state is shown with a representative ring-wearing hog.
Complete with a...
Adventures In...
Illumination Cartography
Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its...
8 months ago
Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its underlying basemap. There’s something satisfying about presenting a phenomenon as revealing geography rather than obscuring it. Love, John
Adventures In...
Make this AI-inspired topo landscape please
Many weeks ago I saw an achingly beautiful bit of AI-generated terrain art shared by Esri’s glorious...
a year ago
Many weeks ago I saw an achingly beautiful bit of AI-generated terrain art shared by Esri’s glorious instagram account. Initially I was a bit intimidated by the robots; it was so charming and tactile and wondrous and dreamlike and sinuous. But also…inspiring. I wondered if I...
Adventures In...
How to make this drought map in ArcGIS Online
Here’s how to make the drought map used in the Drought Aware app. This video covers creating a...
6 days ago
Here’s how to make the drought map used in the Drought Aware app. This video covers creating a custom imagery basemap, modified to best support thematic data, and a styling method for the overlain drought polygons so they tint the imagery a color based on severity and have a...
Map of the Week
Maps GPT
I've been seeing a few interesting uses for ChatGPT-type artificial intelligence lately. Of course...
a year ago
I've been seeing a few interesting uses for ChatGPT-type artificial intelligence lately. Of course there has to be a map generator. MapsGPT is powered by Proxi, an alternative to Google's MyMaps. I started out looking at their map suggestions, such as worst places to take a nap...
Map of the Week
Bad News For Local News
Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative released the latest State of Local News. It...
a month ago
Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative released the latest State of Local News. It highlights the dire state of print journalism with maps to illustrate the problems. This one highlights counties that are on the watch list to become news deserts.
News deserts...
Transit Maps
Project: My UTA Rail and BRT Design Exploration
I teased this in yesterday’s review of the new official UTA diagram, so here’s my exploration of a...
a year ago
I teased this in yesterday’s review of the new official UTA diagram, so here’s my exploration of a few design ideas for an alternative version. As always with this type of project, I look for ways to approach the design problems for the diagram that are intentionally different to...
Maps Mania
Europeans Profiting from American Deaths
5 months ago
Musings on Maps
“They’re Eating Dogs”
“If exotic non-human animals inhabited the edges of the inhabited world in medieval cosmologies,...
3 months ago
“If exotic non-human animals inhabited the edges of the inhabited world in medieval cosmologies, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the MAGA candidate who has done much to resurrect the contours of theocratic Neo-medieval maps of the world is perpetuating stories of … Continue...
Maps Mania
Which Country Most Resembles Your Country?
a year ago
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....
Map of the Week
Philadelphia Bookstore Map
Note: As September comes to a close so does Philadelphia month. There will be a couple more posts...
a year ago
Note: As September comes to a close so does Philadelphia month. There will be a couple more posts today and tomorrow before I return to my normal weekly schedule.
This one is personal. Several years ago I was working with a Philly-based computer programmer and an artist to create...
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...
Maps Mania
Who Deserves a Monument Anyway?
9 months ago
Map of the Week
Stolen Native American Remains
In 1990 the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by the U.S. Congress...
a year ago
In 1990 the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by the U.S. Congress to gave indigenous peoples a way to reclaim their dead. 33 years later about half of the remains have yet to be returned. Pro Publica produced a piece with excellent interactive...
Maps Mania
The Presidential Medal of Cartography
4 months ago
GeoCurrents
New Lectures on U.S. Presidential Elections Posted on YouTube
Several new lectures on the historical geography of U.S. presidential elections have been posted on...
a month ago
Several new lectures on the historical geography of U.S. presidential elections have been posted on the GeoCurrents YouTube channel. The most recently posted lecture covers elections from 1880 to 1992. These lectures include many maps, some which are analyzed in detail, down to...
Maps Mania
30 Days of Crashes in New York City
5 months ago
Adventures In...
On-the-Fly Generalization Hack for ArcGIS Pro
Generalization is one of the most important tools in a map maker’s tool kit. Sometimes the...
10 months ago
Generalization is one of the most important tools in a map maker’s tool kit. Sometimes the complexity of our geometry needs to be smoothed out to best visually represent a place or appear best at various scales. Here is a way (complete hack, but surprisingly effective) to...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 1, Forests
“Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” In this 4-part series we’ll...
10 months ago
“Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” 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 into the seminal aesthetic...
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,...
somethingaboutmaps
Kickstarter 3: The Return
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a...
a month ago
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a number of projects based on this technique (including my favorite item I’ve ever made). Now, I’ve decided to take my recent work in developing terrain sketches, and turn it into a new...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 4 (Japan: Exploring Tokyo)
Sure, the tourists sites were great, but Twelve Mile Circle readers know I like to follow tangents...
a year ago
Sure, the tourists sites were great, but Twelve Mile Circle readers know I like to follow tangents even when I do that. I’m always on the hunt for the unusual, or at least the unusual to me. I’m sure everything seemed perfectly normal to anyone from Japan. So I made sure I...
Maps Mania
The Self-Driving Car Simulation
11 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...
Maps Mania
The American Election & the Rest of the World
2 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 6 (Breweries)
It’s the eternal question. Should I lump all of the brewery visits into a single article or should I...
7 months ago
It’s the eternal question. Should I lump all of the brewery visits into a single article or should I spread them within the series? Well, as always, it depends. This time I decided to discuss them all at once because of a simple fact of geography. We visited eight breweries...
Maps Mania
The Scariest Place Names in the World
a month ago
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...
a week 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...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Atlanta BeltLine – Eastside Trail
I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia for business. On the final day I wrapped-up and had a little time to...
a year ago
I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia for business. On the final day I wrapped-up and had a little time to visit a family member who lives in the city. That became a good excuse to head over to the Grant Park neighborhood on Atlanta’s eastside. We spent most of our late afternoon walking...
Adventures In...
How to Make this Animated Map of Blue Whale Migration
I have a deep admiration for the stirrings inside animals that drive them to undertake...
a year ago
I have a deep admiration for the stirrings inside animals that drive them to undertake thousands-of-miles journeys to far flung locations, and back, in concert with the passage of the our earth around its sun. I’ve reflected on it in writing what became a surprisingly...
somethingaboutmaps
2022 Freelancer Survey Results
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer...
over a year ago
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer rates and business practices! Herein, you will find the results of the survey, sliced into a few different charts and visuals, all crafted by my survey partner Aly Ollivierre. For...
Maps Mania
Mapping Conflicts Around the World
11 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 6 (South Korea: Seoul)
I didn’t get much time to wander around Seoul like I did in Tokyo. Every day was a work day and it...
a year ago
I didn’t get much time to wander around Seoul like I did in Tokyo. Every day was a work day and it was a brief stop. So I was confined mostly to what I could see from the windshield as we drove through the city or from the hotel. However, this was my first trip […]
The post...
Map of the Week
Seoul Maps
I found this nice collection of maps of Seoul, South Korea's largest city and capital from...
a year ago
I found this nice collection of maps of Seoul, South Korea's largest city and capital from theSEOULlive. This is a website/magazine of Korean culture that "focuses on unraveling the hidden jewels of Seoul that can only be found with rumination."
Unfortunately these maps are...
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
Buffalo in 50 Maps
New from Belt Publishing - the third book of their "50 Maps" series, Buffalo in 50 Maps is now out....
a year ago
New from Belt Publishing - the third book of their "50 Maps" series, Buffalo in 50 Maps is now out. Previous books on Cleveland and Detroit have been briefly covered on previous blog posts. The author, cartographer Victoria Johnson-Dahl was kind enough to send me an advance copy...
Maps Mania
Memorial Day Weekend Helicopter Flights
4 months ago
Map of the Week
Make Your Own Ferraris Map
While researching the Ferraris Atlas of Belgium from my last post, I came across a Github page that...
2 months ago
While researching the Ferraris Atlas of Belgium from my last post, I came across a Github page that lets you create your own Ferraris style map using QGIS. The author, Manuel Claeys Bouuaert did an excellent job creating a hand drawn looking style using modern technology....
Adventures In...
How to Make a Historical Animation with Landsat
Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest,...
9 months ago
Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, using Landsat Explorer. And it only takes a few minutes. … 0:00 Intro0:20 Assembling the animation1:47 Checking the result2:14 Saving an animation as an MP42:44 More animation examples3:33...
Map of the Week
The 2022 Hurricane Season
While I was busy obsessing over my 30 Day Map Challenge in November, CNN put out this map in a...
over a year ago
While I was busy obsessing over my 30 Day Map Challenge in November, CNN put out this map in a summary of the 2022 hurricane season.
It's interesting to see all the hurricane tracks on one map. While the season started out slowly, it finished with several memorable storms...
Map of the Week
The Real World Costs of Bitcoin
This is from April but at last week’s NACIS conference I saw Zach Levitt speak about making these...
a year ago
This is from April but at last week’s NACIS conference I saw Zach Levitt speak about making these graphics for the New York Times. The story details how in the midst of a winter storm that left tens or thousands without power, bitcoin mines in the state kept running, until the...
Maps Mania
Mapping the History of the Railway
9 months ago
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 –...
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...
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Diagram of Passenger Stations in the Sydney Metropolitan Area, 1928
There’s a lot to like about this simple little track diagram of Sydney’s rail system from 1928....
4 months ago
There’s a lot to like about this simple little track diagram of Sydney’s rail system from 1928. There’s a lot of different angles – both with route lines and station labels – but it still manages to hang together as a coherent whole. A big part of that is the dead straight...
Maps Mania
Gaza is 42 Million Tonnes of Rubble
4 months ago
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 4, Assembly
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series...
10 months ago
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” 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 into the seminal...
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...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 3, Water
“The world has changed. I see it in the water.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the...
10 months ago
“The world has changed. I see it in the water.” 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 into the seminal aesthetic found in the LOTR...
Musings on Maps
Security Walls: “This is Just the Beginning”
Attending New Year’s service in an Oxford Orthodox synagogue, I paused when the ritual prayer book I...
a year ago
Attending New Year’s service in an Oxford Orthodox synagogue, I paused when the ritual prayer book I held–a Machzor-moved smoothly from prayers to George VI (it was an old one) to prayers for the Israel Defense Forces. The rabbi, who … Continue reading →
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...
Maps Mania
Canada's Hidden Subterranean Rivers
8 months ago
Map of the Week
The Lost Subways of North America
A new book by Jake Berman, The Lost Subways of North America explores the history of unbuilt and...
11 months ago
A new book by Jake Berman, The Lost Subways of North America explores the history of unbuilt and discontinued transit in 23 cities in the United States and Canada. Mexico is not included because "Mexico's urban history is so unlike that of the United States and Canada."
Cities...
somethingaboutmaps
My Decade with Blender
It occurs to me that I have been Blendering for a long time. In fact, it’s been almost exactly a...
7 months ago
It occurs to me that I have been Blendering for a long time. In fact, it’s been almost exactly a decade since I gave my first public presentation on the technique of generating shaded relief using Blender. And in that time, the method has been adopted far more widely than I could...
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...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 3 (Let the Races Begin)
The main reason we went to the Inland Northwest was to run some races. It also became an excuse to...
2 months ago
The main reason we went to the Inland Northwest was to run some races. It also became an excuse to experience a part of the country I hadn’t explored much. Either way, the first of the races was finally about to begin. The Oregon Race We walked through the dark to a park along...
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...
Maps Mania
The World's Bioregions & Ecosystems Mapped
a year ago
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