The Curious Map Book

By :"Ashley Baynton-Williams"

Published on 2015-10-22 by

Category :"History"

We often look to mapmakers in history to be the sober artists, creating tools of conquest and commerce. But every once in a while, thankfully, humor has infused, leaving a legacy of cartographic curiosities. There have been maps crafted of sushi and sashimi, maps in the shapes of animals, an olfactory map of Newport, Rhode Island, etc. And these maps have an avid fan base--with blogs dedicated to Strange Maps, for example. This collection is a curation of cartographic curiosities from the British Library collections. The author has unearthed an array of the curious and whimsical, from game maps to maps in human form, to political, moral and religious maps. The selection is, at times, as idiosyncratic, or personal, as the curious maps themselves. And it is accompanied by discursive captions as well as an introduction that identifies some key themes of map production, curious styles, and the commerce and collection of curious maps.