Light Reading-Summer, 2026

 Here are a few maps that have been sitting on my desktop for no reason other than I enjoy looking at them. Maybe you will too.

The USA according to someone at NACIS (circa 2020)

This map appeared at a NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society) meeting many years ago. I don’t recall who made it but I like the randomness. Of course, these sites are probably not random to the author. Feel free to claim ownership if you made this.

Leimert Park and Southern California, 1927 

-via Wikipedia

The street names have changed and the park has shrunk but I love this perspective with the dark hills looming above and the almost glassy texture of the empty (as shown) areas in between. 

The Amazon Tributaries

Also from Wikipedia - I was reading about a place in Bolivia (like everyone in America does) and got interested in which way the water goes (like everyone in America does). A search brought up this map that does a great job of showing all the major tributaries of the Amazon. Unfortunately it also shows the Orinoco adding some confusion.

The Paraguay-Bolivia-Brazil Tripoint

Wikipedia yet again. I just love the impressionistic look of this. A bunch of soft color strokes instead of hard lines. Nice font too.

El Chepe Railroad

I saw a television program about this railroad - an engineering marvel of its time. Originally the Kansas City Mexico and Orient Railroad, it was worked on for about 80 years and completed in 1961. Some of the switchbacks required to get through Copper Canyon look amazing and I love this mainly for the curlicue in that area. I have the impression this picture was taken from a map inside the train but I’m not sure. Source. 

Map from the Mattapan Trolley

While on the subject of trains, I took a bike ride recently along the path that parallels the route of the Mattapan Trolley in Boston. I love the retro looking map on the train cars. Here is how it looks in motion.

Which Billionaire Could Buy Your City?

From that radical socialist website Redfin. This map is from 2014 and therefore way out of date. It reflects quaint era when trillionaires did not exist. At this point in our wealth disparity many of these people could probably buy entire states. It’s so old that Elon Musk doesn’t even make an appearance. FYI “buying” your city means they can afford to buy every house in that city. Makes you feel sorry for Phil Knight, merely getting Falls Church. Anyway despite being so out of date it still makes a great point and I would love to see an update featuring today’s oligarchs. 

Story Map of Ireland

A few weeks ago while on vacation I put together a jigsaw puzzle titled “Story Map of Ireland” Here it is fully assembled on our rental cottage’s deck,

and some detail pieces.

Story maps have become a popular computer visualization tool. Usually they involve scrolling through interactive digital content to convey information in a narrative sequence. Back in 1935 without today’s technology here’s what a “story map” looked like.

From the National Library of Ireland. “Map of Ireland, surrounded by decorative interlace at edges - the border design and title decorations are adapted from illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells and Book of Macdurnan.“

Image above via the New York Review of Books Reader’s Catalog. You can view the entire map here.

Follow up on the U.S. Africa Map Fiasco

I recently highlighted the embarrassingly bad map shown by the U.S. State Department in a post. The American Geographical Society just posted their response with the title State Department Africa Map Fiasco: Geography Matters. So Does Africa.The article was written by Dr. Lee Schwarz, former Geographer of the U.S. Department of State - a position also know as the GOTUS (Geographer of the United States). This position has been empty for a while. I just want to highlight a few quotes and this map from the BBC, that I had not seen before. It does a good job of showing exactly where the mistakes are.

The article states that while maps occasionally have errors “the fact that this map made it to the light of day may be more reflective of failures and shortcomings in our institutions charged with representing U.S. foreign policy than a cartographer’s slip of the pen.” Continuing “It points to a breakdown in basic oversight and, more troublingly, an assumption that no one would notice—or that it wouldn’t matter if they did.“ While Africa’s well known problems may be the first impressions westerners have it is also “home to over 1.5 billion people, thousands of languages, critical mineral resources, and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. It is a continent central to global supply chains, climate policy, technological innovation, public health, migration, and international security. Africans are pioneering digital financial services, producing globally recognized entrepreneurs, expanding renewable energy, negotiating free-trade agreements, and flexing their muscles in international institutions.” 

There’s much more to read in the article plus a call for posters for their upcoming National Geography Awareness Week symposium Geography 2050: Africa Shaping Tomorrow.

An American Mosaic

Yesterday’s New York Times showed a big map on the front cover with several pages of other maps from U.S. census data. An American Mosaic shows how people identify their ancestry. 

Image via New York Times - I’ve manipulated it to add the legend. 

There are maps that accompany the article as well as an interactive map where you can find dig deeply into any area of the country. Here is greater Atlanta with a census tract in the southeast part of the city highlighted.

Here is the colorful southern California mosaic with a “Mexican” Santa Catalina Island.

One interesting aspect of the interactive algorithm is how when you’re zoomed way out the less common ethnicities show up,

but then disappear as you zoom in favoring the more common ones.

I have not fully taken the time to appreciate all of these yet. I would like to point out the map that annoys me though.

How do descendants of the British Isles get to be called “American”? Perhaps they self identify as such but so do I. My ancestors came here to escape persecution in Eastern Europe and were happy to shed their Russian or Ukrainian or Polish identities to consider themselves American. People from the British Isles were not the first ones here if anyone need reminding of that. Anyway I’ll get off my soapbox and end with this map from the article showing the national origins as they were in 1776. Enjoy exploring here.

U.S. Map Mislabels Every African Country

 At a global AIDS conference the U.S. State Department showed this map of Africa. 

-map via Reuters, reformatted to better fit the page.

Every country is incorrectly located and indicated with ridiculous shapes. Nigeria, where the US has troops deployed is shown in the middle of the Sahara desert and about twice its actual size. 

The Reuters article mentions a visible artificial intelligence watermark indicating it was made with OpenAI. It does bear similarities with other AI-generated maps, particularly the bulbous Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire mashup that points to southwestern Africa and the Cameroon dot going nowhere. The color scheme is awful too. A perfect example of bad AI meeting geographic illiteracy in an incompetent, uncaring government. 

Where is Jimothy?

At a recent meeting, it came up that someone was looking at mapping Jimothy. As someone who is blissfully unaware of most social media trends, my first question was who? Obviously the next question was, is there a map? Of course there is!

For those as unaware as I was Jimothy is a raccoon with an unverified spinal condition who roams around Seattle and stares back at people until they’re uncomfortable. He’s had songs, tattoos and memes in his honor. Next week he will be celebrated at a Seattle Mariners game. Here he is napping in the Ballard area.

The problem with this site is that there are only 4 sightings reported and all on the same week. However, you can add your own.

I have an additional sighting; at the weather desk.

Finally here is an updated Seattle neighborhood map from Jill Avey on LinkedIn.

Mapping Illegal Dump Sites

Way back in 1990 I went to Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia) to volunteer for a mapping project. We mapped illegal dump sites in the Krka River valley. Unfortunately I don’t have any of those maps now, but here in Philadelphia they are doing a similar citizen mapping initiative as documented in the Inquirer.

Participants gathered at an event last week to mark up paper maps just like we did 36 years ago. Here is a better look at one of the maps.

-via Philadelphia Inquirer

The event was organized by the Trash Academy who also keep an interactive digital map of these sites with clickable content.

Here’s the citywide picture.

From their web page:

“Earning it the title of ‘Filthadelphia’, the trash and litter that defaces the streets of our city is an apt metaphor for the systematic devaluation of underserved communities.”