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If you're not a map lover yet, you will be soon.
maps

10 Great Gift Ideas for Map Lovers

Must-haves for the cartography fan in your life.
Eric Grundhauser March 30, 2018
An Ordnance Survey worker points his arrow at a revision point, while laughing children look on.
maps

How Arrow-Wielding Men Mapped Britain in the 1940s

Recently unearthed photos show beleaguered surveyors in suits holding pointy wooden markers.
Cara Giaimo March 27, 2018
Cartographer Antonio Zatta included the Lake de Fonte on this 1776 map.
maps

The Cartographers Who Put Water Where It Didn't Belong

From a distance, European mapmakers documenting North America often perpetuated strategic myths of oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Jessica Leigh Hester March 26, 2018
Elsinore Heron Isle, a place of indecision.
maps

Atlas Obscura Readers Draw Their Personal Fantasy Islands

We asked you to create your own ideal island, and you did not disappoint.
Eric Grundhauser March 9, 2018
Welcome to Tern Island, you wingless freakazoid.
maps

Go Tour This Digitized Island Full of Birds

Terning and terning in the widening gyre.
Cara Giaimo March 7, 2018
A global isochrone map, showing how long it takes to travel from a given spot to the nearest city.
maps

Why Isochrone Maps Are Enjoying a Renaissance

As data sources keep improving, mapmakers keep finding more uses for the 19th-century invention.
Cara Giaimo February 12, 2018
maps

A Beautiful Map of Boston's Sewers

It's the perfect day to look at some historic Beantown infrastructure.
Cara Giaimo February 5, 2018
<em>Tik-Tok of Oz</em>, L. Frank Baum, Chicago, 1914.
maps

Charting the Geography of Classic Literature

A new exhibit focuses on maps of fictional worlds.
Anika Burgess January 31, 2018
A satellite view of Jarvis Island, where thousands of people have pretended to bicycle.
maps

Jarvis Island, the Cycling Hotspot That Wasn't

Why an abandoned guano atoll was once one of the most popular virtual bicycling routes in the world.
Cara Giaimo January 29, 2018
maps

Wishlist: A Scratch-Off World Map Poster

Keep track of your travels with as much or as little precision as you choose.
Madeleine Kenyon January 26, 2018
Forest cover of the United States.
forests

These Vibrant Maps Reveal the World's Hidden Geographies

One man's journey from GIS specialist to artist.
Sarah Laskow January 22, 2018
A screenshot of the map shows the 90-odd salt trucks scattered across Scotland.
maps

This Map Shows Every Adorably Named Salt Truck in Scotland

From Luke Snowalker to Sir Salter Scott.
Natasha Frost January 17, 2018
Red indicates places an hour or more away from a city; purple indicates place a day or more away from a city.
maps

Here's How Long It Takes to Reach a City From Every Place on Earth

A new map measures accessibility to the world's cities.
Sarah Laskow January 10, 2018
A sea monster looms off the coast of Venezuela.
maps

A Vast, 430-Year-Old World Map, Full of Places and Creatures, Real and Imagined

More than 60 square feet of cartographic wonder.
Natasha Frost January 8, 2018
Santa plotting his route, from a holiday card in the New York Public Library collection.
libraries

The Most Festive Treasures of the New York Public Library's Maps Division

We wish you a mappy Christmas.
Jessica Leigh Hester December 11, 2017
A map of the "summer aromas" of Newport, Rhode Island.
maps

Learning About Cities by Mapping Their Smells

The U.K. artist Kate McLean is trying to preserve our olfactory memory.
Vittoria Traverso December 8, 2017
A well-known city, viewed in Morphology.
maps

How Far Can You Abstract a Map?

Morphology, an exploratory cartographic tool, turns the whole world into swoops and lines.
Cara Giaimo December 6, 2017
A detail of the fictional Frisland, from a 1623 map of the North Pole.
maps

How to Put a Fake Island on the Map

Frisland never existed, but for centuries, people wanted to believe that it did.
Genevieve Carlton December 4, 2017