This "unrivaled atlas" (one year of several), published in 1883, slices the world into sections, countries, states,  and statistics.  One of its statistical tables enumerates horse, milk cow, and oxen population and value by state. 

On another page the "Improvements of a Century" can be found.

High Buildings of the World is a pleasing graphic of "tall" buildings.

Tumbling out of the box were maps sponsored by the big oil companies of the 1930's to 1960's, created to encourage touring the United States in gas-guzzling sedans. The 1946 Pennsylvania Road Map above is one example of these maps.

The highways and byways of certain time periods are not necessarily the most captivating information contained in them however.  Often the fortuitous finds are the advertisements at the map's perimeter or the patriotic messages plastered in somewhat garish colors to the back of the map.  The story told on the the map to the left  reads, "In these days when our democratic way of life is on trial, when hard-won liberties are challenged, it is reassuring and inspiring to look at the past."   The oil company names changed and evolved as they were bought out through time, but Esso, Sunoco, Standard Oil, and Continental Oil are a few of the heavy players in our library.

Certain idiosyncrasies were captured in these maps as well.  Look closely at the picture to your right of the Ontario and Quebec Tourguide Map and you will realize that the Canadian spelling of guide was at least temporarily devoid of the letter "u".  At first glance, we thought it was a typo, but noting this spelling on multiple maps leads us to believe that the Canadians were correct after all.  This Gulf-authored map encourages people"to stop at the sign of the orange disc."

On a Shell map of Ontario, we find a bit of history about Iroquois legend.  The "false-face" mask was carved roughly into a living tree and then removed for finishing details.  This sequence was thought to keep the benevolent and beneficial spirit of the tree within the mask.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, we've posted many hours of reading to our photostream.  Have a look, and feel free to comment on anything that catches your eye.  The images are downloadable in a variety of sizes, though the largest maps have been greatly down-sampled to fit the site's size requirements and may look fuzzy when reconstituted.  Getting a better copy is as easy as emailing us, so don't be shy.  We love to share, which is what Flickr is all about.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/psumaplibrary/

Railway Map 1908

The map is posted on flickr, and is a favorite for all the details.  Names of many little towns along the railroad, advertisements which are like a snapshot in time and the unique lettering all used to convey the information needed to travel along the rail.  This looks to have been published to encourage tourism.   The advertisers include steams companies, commission agents, hotels, railway, banks, sites to see and big game to hunt; then for the visitors with a purpose, your local detective agency to find what you are looking for.

Oh ya....... in South Africa.  I can go on and on about ..... how cool it is to view a map of the Railroads in S. Africa over a hundred years ago! 

Another map of the Railway shows your basic no nonsense here is the line and here are the stops.  No ad's enticing you to visit, no "must see" here, just the basics.  Yet the way the map is presented the colored lines, the exotic names of the places tempt me all the same.  

It's Paris in 1900. Oh to be there at Midnight!

Valerie (Our Local Mapmaker) has recently started posting older maps in the collection to flicker.  For all to share and see what is available.... And dream of what might be available.

For all my nostalgia, there are plenty of subway maps available online, for current routes and stops. Just a little searching will reap many rewards.

Here are a few I found:

New York Subway 

Chicago L Map 

London Tube & other Mass Transit Maps

Tokyo Subway Map

My Plan ...... would be to study up on these before I ever visit.  Heaven knows I study our local CATA maps often enough and I live here..... Maybe I'm a little particular..... my husband would only disagree with the use of "a little". So I'm a bit more particular. \

Anyway, if you want to spend time living in the past, we have plenty of historical maps of the railroads, subways, and transit maps to gaze at and dream of a different world. Or if your planning your next excursion, We can help!

Additional Resources:

Ovenden, Mark. Transit Maps of the World: The World's First Collection of Every Urban Train Map on Earth. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

Call no: Maps G1046.P33O9 2007

Dow, Andrew. Telling the Passenger Where to Get Off: George Dow and the Evolution of the Railway Diagrammatic Map. Harrow: Thomson Press, 2005.

Call no.: Maps GA795.D69 2005

And many more maps of subways, railroads, and mass transit are available, Just ASK!

This sparked more Questions than Answers

Well I've learned in the past few weeks that recycling is not a 21^st century habit, but an old tradition.  I had a request to find a specific edition of topographic maps of Russia, Published by Nazi Germany in the 1930's and 1940's.  So in the maps library we have two drawers full of the scale 1:100,000, (over 650 individual maps) but they are a mixture of publishers, and many different dates.

After I go through a drawer, approximately 300 maps, I had nothing that matched the request! Nothing!  I was at a loss, but always full of determination.  So I started on the second drawer.... And I tried a new arm motion because my arms were tired from going through the previous drawer.  The back of the third map caught my eye.  It had the edition that I was seeking. But it only showed a quarter of the map.  What?!  Where was the rest of the map?  Why had it been cut it up?  Why didn't it have anything to do with the map on the front?  The more I looked at the back the more, Questions I had.

Come to find out during World War II, the German cartography

on the back are not recorded anywhere.....

Til now.

                                                  This is the map edition that I was searching for.

I went through over 650 maps to record what was on the back of the maps.  It was like a mystery hunt.  Using little details to figure out where they were of and what edition they were.  Who would have thought recycling before it was "in" but when it was a necessity.  There still is a long path ahead to figure out if we have any complete maps, and if any of them are a valuable resource to be catalogued and recorded.  There is a valuable lesson; another man's trash is our treasure.  I bet they never figured anyone would care about what maps they were printing on the back of.

Note: the pictures do not illustrate the challenges that are faced since they are naturally only portions of maps; I'm still searching for a way to illustrate the situation in a more comprehensive method. 

After writing last month's blog post, I was still itching to learn more about mappings of the Underground Railroad.  

References pointed me in the direction of Wilbur H Siebert's research.  Siebert held numerous positions at the Ohio State University, beginning as an instructor of history and political science in 1891 and achieving emeritus status in 1935.  He spent much of his career amassing thousands of pages of information about underground activities not just in Ohio, but throughout the eastern US.  He sent out surveys, traveled railroad routes, and interviewed both agents and former fugitives.  

As a result of his efforts, he was able to collect or compile routes used by runaways in a series of maps.  (One such map, drawn in a schematized style, made me think of the zigzag route recommended by the drunkard's path quilt patch.) 

But a somewhat scathing remark on Siebert's Wikipedia entry about errors in his writings reminded me to do a little source-checking.  Siebert left his collection of papers to Ohio State, who released them on 16 reels of microfilm, four of which are owned by Penn State.  So I scrolled through the reels and was even more excited by what I found, references to station locations and individuals who assisted escaping slaves, in places I know.  A letter written by George Rank about his family's activities listed more than 15 stops in west central PA and the names of the people running them.  Quickly I turned to an 1871 atlas of Indiana County and was able to verify that many of the names were on the map, so to speak.  My next step will be to scan the maps and trace the path of the routes Mr. Rank described.  If I really wanted to go crazy with cross-checking, there's always Census data.  And deeds and land records....

Given how long ago these activities were undertaken and how crucial secrecy was for protecting helpers and escapees, it may not be possible to ever know for sure the exact location of Underground Railroad routes.  But a map of possibilities is better than no map at all.  It's somewhere to start and a guide for further research. After all, if you don't know where you are, how can you get to where you're going?

One gem is the Stratocam presentation.  Stratocam.com presents you with a slideshow of some of the best satellite images  of the earth's shorelines, man-made towers, lakes, desserts, and topographic images.  You can give a thumbs up or down on each image, or you can venture out to "snap" some of your own finds for others to vote on.

There were other just-for-fun applications introduced at the conference. Timehop purports to amalgamate your activities from one year ago using your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram posts and send them to you in one email a day. The email "brings it all back to you."  I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Alohar Mobile introduced its Mobile Location Behavior Analytics platform that uses information gathered from their PlaceMe app. The free Placeme app for iOS and Android uses your phone's GPS and WiFi locator to record everywhere you have been and how long you stayed.  What is thought-provoking is Alohar's  software development kit that will help developers create apps using all that location information that you have sent to them. Using those potential apps, your smart phone can then become your "personal assistant," recommending where cheaper gas is and what route home you might want to try when your usual path is moving slowly. 

Preparing for your Semester Study Abroad or a Summer Vacation

Come and visit to see what resources we have available. 

All through our collection, there is information available about the history, political situation, language and customs for almost every country.  The tourist maps usually have very practical information about travel, tipping/currency, holidays, subways, and more.

If you are taking a long weekend trip 

to New York City, Philadelphia, or Washington DC, we have great list of points of interest!

Use our Study Abroad Research Guide to further your preparation.

Although this past winter was, by central PA standards, quite mild, there was still something about the long dark nights that drove me toward cozying down with a project to keep my hands busy and my creative energy flowing. Last year I crocheted squares for a baby blanket; this year I took up quilting.  My first attempt was at a cheerful mini-quilt to warm me at my desk while I make maps.  It was challenging (mostly because I didn't really know what I was doing), but intriguing - there's something about piecing together bits of fabric into a coherent whole that's captivating, so many possibilities in even the simplest of patterns.

But within all of the endless variety of shape, size, and form, there's one thing about quilts that doesn't vary.  For a quilt to be a quilt, it must be composed of multiple layers of fabric that are anchored together by ties or by stitching.  And of course, this definition of layering makes me think of the way we describe GIS, as layers of data anchored together by coordinate data.  I would extend this definition more generally to all maps, that they are made of layers of information that singly might not make sense and need to come together in some kind of logical compilation.  To call a map a quilt of sorts makes a neat metaphor. 

For runaway slaves attempting to escape on the Underground Railroad, the reverse relationship - quilt as map - may have been much more than literary or theoretical.  It has long been believed that the placement of a quilt outside a home signaled whether or not it was safe to stop there.  According to the oral tradition of one African American family, though, quilts also carried codes within specific designs, codes that signaled when to prepare for flight and where to head.  For example, the bear paw square directed escaping slaves to follow a bear trail through the mountains.  Several other designs were also directional, while one (the crossroads) represented a specific place, Cleveland Ohio.  There were ten patterns in this particular code, their meanings surmised in the book Hidden in Plain View, which argues that the symbols used in slaves' handiwork were closely tied to those used by African secret societies, thereby giving the enslaved people - who were forbidden to read or write - a secret means of communication.

I find their argument compelling (and highly recommend reading the book for more detail).  But what I find even more compelling is the number of ways quilts and geographic information intersected:

• Some designs (Dresden plate) may have meant specific towns (Dresden, OH; Dresden, Ont)
•  Ties were spaced two inches apart, creating a grid showing miles between destinations
• Lines of stitching created a topographic-like map of the plantation
• Style of stitching varied from family to family, influenced by the family's place of origin
• Patterns and stitching were sometimes broken up to keep evil spirits from traveling in a straight line (which would bring bad luck)
• The nine patch could be used to show the location and orientation of fields
• The drunkard's path reminded escapees to take a zigzag route to make it harder to be followed

Much of what the research presents is supposition; without more corroborating information, it's hard to know how often quilts were used as maps, or how well they worked.  But for me, even a mere hint is enough - maps as quilts and quilts as maps, so many fascinating possibilities.

Since tomorrow is the first day of Spring, And the flowers are in bloom today.  I thought I would focus my entry on the wonder of beautiful plants.  We should soon be seeing lovely new growth all around.  I do enjoy the change in the air and the smell right before everything blooms!  

Penn State has a website devoted to knowing what the trees are around the University Park campus.

The Maps Library has one map that shows where different medicinal plants can be found along with their  name in Latin and a bit about it. (See above and below)

Sometimes you never know what you will find on a back of a map.....

call number G3701.D2 1936

This map shows locations of types of forests in Alaska  (right)

call number: G4371.D2 1967

See how in South America the forest follow the Amazon River and it's many branches (below)

call number: G5201.K2 1911

a few showing the lay of the land (vegetation) in far off places such as Australia (below)

call number: G8981.D2 1954

and Uganda(below)

call number: G8421.D2 1964

The maps illustrating the vegetation of the land use different colors to show the dominate type of plants in a particular area.  They seem to have elegance about the lines and artistic beauty in the botanical patterns.  I enjoy them for their beauty as well as their educational value.

I could not leave out is a vegetation map for a pre-war Korea(right) 

call number: G7901.K2 1950

Additional Websites of interest.

The Plant Map online allows you to choose the specific area (by zip code) and find out hardiness, freeze data, drought data, and much more.

The USDA Agricultural Research website also has several maps that will assist you in creating your garden.

Where are your plants on the map?

Bibliography, In order of presentation within the blog

Medicinal plant map of the United States of America.  [New York]: National Wholesale Druggists' Association, [1936]. Call number: G3701.D2 1936.N3

Potential natural vegetation of Alaska. Washington, D.C.:U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey, 1967. Call number: G4371.D2 1967.U5 (not in CAT)

Natural forest regions of South America and their characteristic tree growth.  [Washington, D.C.] Issued by the Office of Geography and the Dendrologist, 1911. Call number: G5201.K2 1911.U5

Vegetation map of the A.C. T. [Canberra: National Mapping Office, 1954]. Call number G8981.D2 1954.A8

Uganda vegetation/ surveyed and compiled by I. Langdale-Brown, H.A. Osmaston, and J.G. Wilson.. [Entebbe]: Uganda Government, 1964.  Call number: G8421.D2 1964.L3 Sheet 2

Korea, vegetation. [Washington, D.C.], AMS, [1950]. Call number: G7901.K2 1950.U5

Several months ago, after struggling to use an oversized, faded and pieced-together index of our Pennsylvania aerial photo holdings, I decided to once again do a search online for newer, more legible versions.  I had tried a couple of years earlier to find replacement copies, but to no avail, and had no better luck this time.  Clearly it was time for the old black and white photocopied index to die, and after hours of coming up empty, I realize the only way to get rid of it was to try to create new indexes from scratch.

The images were centered on USGS 7.5-minute quads, with a 60% overlap of images--meaning adjacent pairs can be viewed in 3D with stereographic equipment.  NAPP (National Aerial Photography Program) photos were collected over several cycles between 1987 and 2004, at a scale of 1:40,000, centered on quarter sections of the 7.5-minute quads. 

For some reason, the "centered on" information escaped my attention at the time.  I knew that I needed to use center points because with the extensive overlap of frames, attempting to draw bounding boxes would just make a mess.  After a great deal of stumbling around, I finally found my way into EarthExplorer, the USGS's online repository of imagery products, where I was able to pull up images matching those in our collection.  Using the info posted with the images, and a lot of scratch paper, I calculated the distances between center points (3.75', which was clearly stated in the descriptions I came across later) and got a lat-long grid set up in ArcMap.  The rest was drawing and labeling and inventorying our collections against their catalog records and voile!  A couple of weeks later, we had legible color indexes ready to guide patrons in the hunt for aerial photos of Pennsylvania looking lovely in the 1980s and early 90s (minus the big hair).

To see what our print collection covers, check here: http://extranet.libraries.psu.edu/psul/maps/indexes.html

One email noted that Northwestern University had Ann among its Hidden Treasures and created a Facebook page to honor her.  Mary, a long-term maps employee, pointed out that we had the poster that showcased the malaria prevention material.  Sure enough, a trip through our archives unearthed this title from the CAT -  Newsmap: Monday, November 8, 1943: week of October 28 to November 4: 217th week of the war: 99th week of U.S. participation.  Not only does this piece of history have the story of Ann the Anopheles mosquito, it has a photograph that proclaims "the Navy's new Hellcat fighter plane brings down a Japanese fighter plane nicknamed Emily near the Gilbert Islands."

Happy President's Day!

As We celebrate and recognize the men who have led our country.  I thought it would be interesting to review the voting history of Wyoming (where I'm from)  in comparison to Pennsylvania (where I live) and then to California (for variety).

Since I moved to Pa I have been told more than once that since I was from Wyoming "Of course Your Republican".  Does geography play a large factor in a political bent?  Are people from more populated areas automatically Democrats any more than people from the wide open, least populated state of Wyoming Republican?  I'm not sure; I'll ever know the answer to this question..... However, I can look at the history of the state and compare.

Starting with the 1892 election ending with the 2008 election; Wyoming being the state that was added to Union the latest in 1890.

• ·        Wyoming gave Republican Candidates their electoral votes in 22 out of 30 times, 8 times to Democratic Candidates
• ·        Pennsylvania gave Republican candidates their electoral votes in 17 out of 30, 1 year to the Progressive Party Candidate, and 12 times to Democratic Candidates
  
• ·        California gave Republican candidates their electoral votes in 14 out of 30, 2 years they split their votes between the two parties, 13 times they gave them completely to the Democratic Party Candidate and 1 year to the Progressive Party Candidate.

From this information and the limit to elections between 1892-2008, all of these three states have given their electoral votes to the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party.  Draw what conclusions you want from this information and have a look at the maps.  You can view sections of this map from the National Atlas. Call Number: G3701.F9 2000.G4

In the nature of the election process of the United States maps are used to show the progress of one candidate or another.  Many maps will be produced to predict, sum up, and review the voters throughout the coming election.  Here you can map the current election on 270 to Win. 

Here is an election map of 2008 that reflects the population density in a specific area verse the actual land mass.  Since it is the population that influences the Electoral College and not the acreage, this image portrays the actual votes more visually accurately.  Even thou, I'm not known for my WYO pride, I feel a little sad when I see it disappear in the cartogram.  Still knowing WYO is the least populated state, it would make sense being so small.  (more explanation of this map/cartogram can be found in this link )

We have the Atlas of the Real World referred to in this blog post. It's is fun to stroll through and see the changes when acreage is removed as a factor.  Call Number: Maps G1021.D586 2008

Sometimes when I tell people that I make maps for a living, this kind of perplexed look passes over their faces.  They seem to be wondering: what can possibly be left to map?  They are most likely thinking about road or topographic maps, which seek to depict physical features on the earth's surface as accurately as possible.  And aside from updating and quality improvement, there isn't much "new" cartography to be done.

But the maps I make are thematic, meant to highlight a particular idea or topic.  Because data frequently change or are created, there's always something new to be mapped.  In many cases, the data have been around for a while, but no one thought to map it.  Or if they mapped it, they didn't do a very good job of it.  By 'good,' I mean the map does not clearly communicate what it is meant to communicate.  It doesn't necessarily have to be attractive, though there is no particular reason why it shouldn't be, as long as it is comprehensible, and accurate.  There are numerous design elements that go into creating a good map, text placement, layout, symbology, etc, and those are easily learned about with some additional reading (I highly recommend the British Cartographic Society's short and sweet Cartography: an introduction).

What I'd like to do is focus on a specific example.  Earlier this week our governor announced his budget plan for the coming year, which includes a 30% decrease in funding for state-related schools like Penn State.  Our student body of 96,519 is distributed across 24 campuses and cyberspace.  I was curious about what our enrollment numbers would look like on a map.  In digging through the online Fact Book for 2011's enrollment, I came across a Total Enroll by Location page that included a map and a table. 

The map really just serves as a reference, and doesn't add any benefit to understanding the data.  And even then, it doesn't do a particularly good job.  For example, there's no relationship between campus locations/enrollment and the mountains, so why show them (and in wrong places, no less)?  Ditto for the rivers; furthermore, there's an odd break in the middle of the Susquehanna that is inaccurate.  Text placement is poor and crowded.  The campus symbols would stand out better if they were outlined or were darker.

By contrast, this is what a thematic map could do:

The topic at hand is emphasized by not showing extraneous features, such as mountains and rivers.  Proportional symbols show the data in a glance.  With enrollment numbers included on the map, the reader's eye doesn't need to track back and forth from table to map and back.  The symbol is dark, stands out, and is tailored to the theme. 

It may not win any awards, but by my count, this is a good map: it does what it needs to do.  And that, I think, makes the difference.