yaleuniversity:

On this day (May 14) in 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed from St. Louis, Missouri to lead the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.

Check out the maps Lewis and Clark used during their expedition via the Western Americana Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

dadatavis:

Laconic History of the World

(The most common word in every Wikipedia article titled ‘History of ____’)

perfectlouse:

by Marijn Nieuwenhuis, University of Warwick

The idea of nationhood rests on the claim of a specific territorial area. The cartographic demarcating of territory automatically exposes, however, the contingent nature of borders. Modern borders are the product of a world system composed of nation states which are not organic unities but socially constructed entities in need of constant affirmation. Nationalism, the modus operandi for that affirmation, often takes a cartographic form. Cartographic nationalism is of all ages but seems in East Asia to have become especially important in post-Mao China.

This short article wishes to offer some insight into the ways in which maps are increasingly being used to arouse nationalist sentiments in East Asia. I do not aspire to explain the reasons for the trend of a rise in nationalism, but instead wish to engage with the manner in which this has become apparent by looking at the ways in which maps have recently been used to settle territorial disputes.

inthepasttense:

Map from the inside cover of Georgian Military Road, 1971.

mapsontheweb:

Desertification of the world

infinitemachine:

Map of the Day: Maps of nothing (0) by ~tomren

marcuslondon:

Map progress #map #maps #drawing #black #white #london #thames

mapsontheweb:

Long distance bus lines in Germany
Source: kraven420 (reddit)