A picture of American faith
I have a piece today in Fast Company Design about the nineteenth-century origins of modern infographics, both thematic maps but also other forms of graphic knowledge like timelines. One of...
Blog
Here we can continue to explore the relationship between maps and history. I welcome your comments, and your maps!
An alternative map of the American west
Could the map of the west have been drawn in a fundamentally different way? Last month I was interviewed by BackStory with the American History Guys for a show on...
Why Republicans mapped slavery in the 1856 election
Jon Dotson, owner of Old World Auctions, recently showed me a political broadside from the 1856 campaign, when the new Republican Party ran its first presidential candidate, the celebrated western...
How maps get used, then reused
In late July I gave a lecture on early maps of what eventually became the Colorado Territory, as part of a conference hosted here at DU on the mapping of...
Private Sneden maps the Civil War
I have a piece in today’s “Disunion” blog at the Times on Private Robert Knox Sneden, a soldier with artistic talents who was attached to the Third Corps of the Army of the...
New exhibit of thematic maps
John Delaney, a curator of the Historic Maps Collection at Princeton University Library, has created an excellent online exhibit of thematic maps (it may take a minute to load). In...
Charting the flow of political power
Timelines were very popular in the nineteenth century, in classrooms as well as living rooms. An intriguing example is this “Conspectus of the History of Political Parties” (1880). Created just...
The Center of the World
Thanks to Wendel Cox, senior manuscripts librarian at the Denver Public Library, for sending me this map issued by the Denver Planning Commission during World War Two. This unconventional world...
Mapping the Mail
This is one of the earliest maps made in the new nation. In 1790 the first Postmaster General appealed to Congress for funds to create a comprehensive map of the...