Comments on: Can you recommend sites with cool timelines and maps?

Question: Can you recommend sites with cool timelines and maps?

jdroth — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:01:20 -0800

A geek with an internet connection, time to kill, and money to burn: it's a Good Thing. So I've spent the morning looking at cool maps, interesting posters, and timelines. I'd love to look at more. Can you recommend sites with cool, geeky, information-packed maps and.or posters that would look good on a wall? I'd love to find a good historical timeline, for example. Help me fritter my life away!

By: iconomy

iconomy — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:29:03 -0800

Calling mcwetboy! Go back through the archives of his Maproom - scads of really great linkage there.

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:50:07 -0800

Heh. I would have recommended Raven until I scrolled over your first link. I've bought a couple of their maps in the past as gifts and they are stunning. Highly recommended.

The French Institut Geographique National has some cool stuff. They ship overseas. (The in-store experience is much better than their webs ite, so if you really have some monet to burn, you know what to do :)

By: Dick Paris

Dick Paris — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:50:17 -0800

By: sleslie

sleslie — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 12:19:05 -0800

I'd second the Tufte poster. I've always wanted the one outlining Napoloen's campaign against Russia in 1812.

Asthetically pleasing, no, but the amount of information per square inch! Astounding!

By: bkeaggy

bkeaggy — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 12:52:21 -0800

Apologies for the self-link, but I've collected some map links over the years: xBlog: Mapping. Hope that helps. Definitely check out The Map Room as iconomy recommended.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 13:27:26 -0800

Great links, folks. Thanks. More more more!

And you know, I'd really love a giant frameable print of a zeppelin. Or some sort of DK-style comparitive poster of zeppelin history.

Seriously.

Ah, decorating a new house is fun, isn't it? :)

By: Voivod

Voivod — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 13:58:46 -0800

Ooooh nice question! Will be reloading this thread often today. Wonder if any can ship by father's day...

By: Sangre Azul

Sangre Azul — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 14:21:24 -0800

If you're into antique maps & prints, these folks are a good resource. Alas, the owner appears to be closing up shop (but has a great many ebay auctions);the site still has many wonderful scans & plate information that could help you find something cool elsewhere.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 14:40:10 -0800

curta calculator poster.

By: Hackworth

Hackworth — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 14:52:02 -0800

Raven maps makes some good stuff. Check out the "computer view" maps.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:00:44 -0800

This map of the Land of Make Believe, long out of print, is one of my favorites. I found a copy on eBay many moons ago, and had it laminated to a piece of wood (I forget the name of the process). It's beautiful.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 18:15:41 -0800

What a great map! I think you might be referring to decoupaging. I do that with vintage-looking posters sometimes, to great effect.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 19:23:02 -0800

I recommend Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion Map, which distorts sizes and shapes less than other flat maps, and makes all the world's land look like an island chain in one ocean.

By: tetsuo

tetsuo — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 20:02:35 -0800

I posted this once, didn't get a good reaction, but maybe you'll like it:

World History Timeline

By: mcwetboy

mcwetboy — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 21:11:16 -0800

Hmm. Methinks I should get my act together and make with the new posts on the aforementioned Map Room. (It's been over a month, and people are still submitting links. Needless to say there's a backlog. I've been too busy elsewhere. Back to it with me.)

Can't think of anything off-hand; I'll be using this thread myself for new links. I know less about maps than many people here; the blog is an exercise in self-education. Always scares me when people ask for advice.

I do know that many map stores -- I love map stores -- have neat stuff for walls, sometimes even already dry-mounted, and not just maps. I picked up a poster of a 360° panorama from the summit of Mt. Temple (Banff National Park -- I also like mountains) at a map store in Edmonton about eight years ago. The one in Ottawa had some reprints of old railway network maps (I also like trains) that I was staring long and hard at, though I was ostensibly there for some topo maps . . .

I've got to get it restored -- I got it second hand, already with major rips -- but the coolest thing on my wall for the longest time was a Soviet-era map of the world in Russian.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 23:41:05 -0800

Not for the wall, but in Germany I bought a set of DVDs with combination maps and aerial photographs for the entire country. For larger cities, the photographic detail was very high, I could pick out the vent shaft of my small building in the city center. It was even affordable. The equivalent in the UK I've seen was only regional and pricey.

I love maps, on the wall, in books and especially on the computer. But as a renter in the UK, hanging stuff on the walls requires repairs when moving. Not so much as a single picture hook. And the IDIOT real estate agent told the landlord to even remove the hooks she had already!

By: milovoo

milovoo — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 08:57:12 -0800

Tetsuo, good factual threads don't always get a lot of posts. I thought it was good.
Here's the thread from the blue about timeline posters.