Map Shanty

I would LOVE to have a big sign up on the wall with a question from one of our first meetings last fall "What worldview does this map represent?"

Here's a few historic maps I'd love to include...

The Sanborn Maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps
This vast collection of maps, some of the most detailed urban maps in the US, were originally created for fire insurance assessments. I think these are interesting because they're a really concrete example of how a lot of mapping and data collection in general was and still is propelled by financial interests.

Medieval T-O Maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_and_O_map
This one is kind of just wonky for demonstrating how crude maps once were and how mapmaking/cartography is always really just a way of using symbols (which over time are made more 'accurate' or nuanced) to communicate our ideas about space and places.

Ancient Greek Maps & Terra Australis Incognito http://www.abc.net.au/navigators/maps/default.htm
Essentially Aristotle and other greek philosophers and cartographers theorized that the world needed to be balanced, otherwise it would tip over, and so hypothesized the existence of a land mass called Terra Australis Incognito somewhere under the Indian Ocean. This is where the name Australia comes from when a land mass (entirely different in shape and size from the Greek's idea) was discovered.

I'd love to include a copy of the maps I posted on here before too about slavery and the election...

I'd also like to find a good historic map that depicts either old notions of western expansion/ manifest destiny, or changes (namely shrinkages) in Native American territory over time...

This site also has some great information on maps and colonialism: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/key-concepts/Carto... I'd love to include something from here.