Bacon, ca 1890īird’s eye views fascinate us because they give us a panoramic, perspective view of a landscape as if we were seeing it with our own eyes. Posted in MapCarte | Tagged historical, MapCarte, pictorial, route, thematic MapCarte 346/365: Bird’s eye view of South Africa by G. Maps can omit so much and still be perfectly suited to telling the story of the form itself. The river becomes the central anchor to the two page spread and around it are beautifully illustrated vignettes – panoramic scenes of the towns, villages and natural scenery along the river. It’s akin to some of the classic early strip maps used to map roads and it translates well to a river. It becomes a linear cartogram with some segments straightened and a lack of almost all other topographic detail except for places that directly border the river itself. Instead, as a supplement to The Graphic, this map focuses on just the river. You’d be forced into adding all sorts of other topographic detail simply to fill space. The scale wouldn’t allow it and the amount of white space would make the balance of the map inappropriate. General reference maps simply wouldn’t suit the purpose of highlighting the settlements and places along a river. It passes through 11 different countries, though this map only illustrates the portion from Khartoum (where the Blue and White Nile meet) to the coast at Cairo. The whole river itself is over 4,000 miles in length and 2 miles in width at it’s widest. One of the more dramatic consequences of this process is omission of all but a single geographic feature and this map of the River Nile from the late 1800s illustrates the principle perfectly. We make many decisions about the content of the map. Selection and omission is a key cartographic requirement. Posted in MapCarte | Tagged hand drawn, MapCarte, pictorial MapCarte 358/365: Cairo to Khartoum by The Graphic, 1884

It should also act more generally as an inspiration to think creatively and to aspire to make maps that are set apart from the rest. Of course, we don’t all have to have an artistic talent to make maps but if you’re going to make maps like these it certainly helps. The map itself is a lovely piece of cartographic art and well drawn. It’s a simple yet effective idea that communicates a message of harmony using established symbolic visual metaphors. Here, the use of the aquatic lotus flower, reflecting cultural significance, forms the shape of the landmasses of the world map within an ornamental pond. Pictorial maps often make heavy use of non-map imagery or combine elements to make up a map form. This beautiful map from 15 year old Liao Zhi Yuan of China typifies not only a high level of artistry but also in interpretation and use of the map form.

Of course, when we’re growing up we routinely draw with pen and paper and the recent entries to the International Cartographic Association’s Barbara Petchenik children’s map competition evidence the imagination and artistry among the world’s youngsters. The marks of the pen and the shades of the colouring give the map character. Still, hand drawn maps inspire and have something very human about them.

Cartography has always been, in part, an artistic pursuit and in a world where many more maps are now made digitally we see a lot of bland cartography in design terms.