Tag Archives: Cartography

Fictional Journeys

Posted on July 16, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I don’t know who created the wonderful website Reading Maps, but I’d love to buy them a cup of coffee. Reading Maps is a very simple, but wildly diverting, project that takes fictional journeys and plots them on a world map. The site … Continue reading →

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Geographic Oddities

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I don’t think that anybody would challenge the notion that the United States is a really, really weird place, but there are some geographic oddities in the video below that you might find fascinating. RealLifeLore selected some interesting facts that … Continue reading →

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Parallel to what ?

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Finally. You’ve always wanted to know which cities are on the same parallel  (latitude) as yours across the globe. Now you can find out.

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Exonym Atlas

Posted on June 9, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

An exonym is a place name used by outsiders—for example, English speakers using Germany for Deutschland. The Exonym Atlas explores how other languages name countries and groups those names by usage. Fascinating to see the derivations of names, which don’t always follow language families: for … Continue reading →

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Emptying Europe

Posted on May 7, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Where Europe’s Population is Shrinking, is an excellent example of how large-scale spatial data and clear visual design can come together to tell a nuanced geographic story. In this case, the story is one of Europe’s rural depopulation and how … Continue reading →

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Discover Britain with Geograph

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Geograph: You don’t have to be an Anglophile to get lost in this wonderful project. It’s a bit like like Google maps, but crowdsourced  – “The Geograph® Britain and Ireland project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for … Continue reading →

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London in the 18th Century

Posted on April 7, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I never tire of reading about Britain’s greatest city. London in the 18th Century by Wallace Crawford Snowden, revised and edited by Marie Clayton, offers a full reproduction of pioneering cartographer John Rocque’s 1746 An Exact Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster which provided … Continue reading →

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Cartography comes to Harlem (apologies to Chester Himes)

Posted on February 19, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Elmer Simms Campbell is famous for his decades of work as an illustrator for some of the most popular U.S. periodicals, such as Esquire, Playboy, and Cosmopolitan,  during the mid to late 20th century.  In 1939, Campbell became the first … Continue reading →

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New York, New York

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I was astonished by the new website isometric nyc. This project offers an amazingly detailed and incredibly comprehensive isometric pixel art map of New York City – not just Manhattan either, but all the other boroughs too, including my ancestral land of … Continue reading →

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Occupation Cartography

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Over the last year or two I’ve seen many social media posts about “occupying powers” and accusations about nations or peoples being “colonizers”. I’ve been thinking that maps may help clarify some of the confusion.    

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