Europa Polyglotta, a cool map from 1730, indicating the languages spoken in Europe and full of typographic goodness.
Tag: maps
Cutting edge maps
Cutting edge maps, very cool cutouts
Motorway map of England
Motorway map of England, in the style of Harry Beck’s London Underground map.
The London tube map archive
Panoramic Map of New York
Map Cover: large | flickr
Map Front: small | large | flickr
Picked this map up a few months ago at a used bookstore, but kept forgetting to actually scan the thing. It’s pretty funky, with a weird perspective that you don’t usually see these days. The map has no date, but sometime around 1950 would be a decent estimate.
There’s a transit map on the back, but it needs some more work before it gets posted. We’ll save that project for a rainy day, I’ve already put far too much effort into stitching this one together.
Update
Comments also indicate that the map is likely from around the time of the 1939 World’s Fair. I’ve also added a copy of the transportation map on the back. Had scanned it in but forgot to stitch the images together.
Map Back: small | large | flickr
Update 2
From Jim Hughes at Codex 99.
Although the traditional maps were becoming more accurate, the ever-increasing height and sheer density of buildings made perspective mapping increasingly problematic. This map, prepared as a 1939 World’s Fair souvenir by Alexander Gross shows the limitations of traditional perspective.