The Mysterious "Frenchman's Map" of Williamsburg

While visiting family in Virginia this week, we made a trip to Colonial Williamsburg (CW), a good place to go during the 250th anniversary of the United States. While there I came across a cartographic mystery. The “Frenchman’s Map” was said to be instrumental in the restoration of the colonial village. The black and white version above is from Wikimedia commons. 

Here is a piece of a colorized version of the map that is for sale at the CW bookstore. 

There is a lot of detail but very little explanatory text, leading many to believe that this is merely a draft version with the final version yet undiscovered. This and the following conjectures are largely from In Search of the Frenchman’s Map, as well as the book The Mysteries of the “Frenchman’s Map” of Williamsburg, Virginia by Alan Simpson. Yes, there is an entire book dedicated to this map! It is speculated that the map was drawn for French troops who set up their winter quarters in Williamsburg in 1781-82. The map is similar to ones of nearby Yorktown and Hampton drawn by the Berthier brothers of France, but those maps are more complete. It is also likely that it was traced from another version given a series of pinholes in it. 

It is also a mystery as to who the “Frenchman” was. There is no signature on the map and the caption is not in the same handwriting as the rest of the text. Finally, the date on the caption is May 11, 1782, which would have been well after it was needed. 

While visiting the engravers shop in the village, I saw a tray she had been working on with the map etched into it. 

The map has some remarkable details, though described as “impressionistic“ in the article referenced above. It shows building outlines, fences and in some cases even indicating specific trees with dots. Here is the map followed by a detail from the tray’s engraving. 

The folded paper map they hand out to visitors has many nice details too and the building coloring is useful. This is most of the map, trimmed to fit the page better. You can see entire map and guide here. 

By contrast here’s the Frenchman’s version. 

The article on the CW site (the first one listed above) is an interesting short read. It goes into a lot more depth about these mysteries including details of how it was obtained after being lost for a century.

Rose Hill Cemetery

Old Friend of the blog Michael Karpovage whose Pictorial Savannah map was highlighted here many years back has a new map of Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia. This is “not just a cemetery map, but a passionately built tribute to the namesake and creative visionary behind the landscape”. Mr. Simri Rose was an urban planner, horticulturalist and historian who aided in laying out the City of Macon. 

This cemetery was part of the Rural Cemetery Movement, establishing cemeteries as parks and escapes from the crowded nearby cities. 

The map also includes the adjoining Oak Ridge Cemetery that was set aside for the city’s black population, segregated even in death. Famous people buried here include 4 of the 6 original members of the Allman Brothers Band, who are interred together in a family style plot. 

The map has a “mushroom tour” of Allman Brothers sites that you can follow on a purple dotted line. The mushrooms are an homage to the psychedelic imagery of their 1970’s era.

Included in the tour are the graves of Elizabeth Reed and Little Martha as well as Phil Walden, co-founder of Capricorn Records. A few pictures from their album covers and publicity shots were taken here as well. 

There is also a video tour that Karpovage narrates on his page. He takes you on his bicycle through many of the Allman Brothers sites as well as monuments to other significant residents such as Colonel Joseph Bond, whose original marble statue was confiscated en route to Macon and is now in a cemetery in Kentucky.

Boston in 50 Maps

The latest book in Belt Publishing’s 50 Maps series is Boston in 50 Maps. Living in the area and knowing author Andy Woodruff, I had the chance to attend the book launch at the Boston Public Library sponsored by the Leventhal Map Center. 

-Leventhal President Garrett Dash Nelson (left speaking) and Author Andy Woodruff (right)

As a non-native Bostonian Woodruff brings a refreshingly non-exceptionalist view to this book. While many Bostonians think their funny accents, sports crazed fans, history and food are unique in the world, he spotlights some truly uniquely Boston experiences. One of them is Storrowing, when larger vehicles, sometimes the moving vans of college students, get stuck or collide with the low clearance underpasses of the riverfront highways (including Storrow Drive) despite the many “CARS ONLY” signs.

A uniquely Boston historical event was the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 when a large tank burst spilling the sticky stuff all over the area and destroying buildings, wharfs and an elevated railway.

While many east coast cities were partially built by filling swamps, bays and rivers with land, a huge percent of central Boston was created this way.

What is most interesting to me is that these filled areas are also the ones with the highest risk of coastal flooding in the near future. This is best seen by comparing the white areas (areas with the least flooding risk) of the map above and the flood risk map below. In addition to the downtown peninsula, also note the South Boston/Dorchester Heights area, East Boston and Charlestown. 

One interesting experiment from Woodruff’s Bostonography site, was an online survey where respondents named and drew their neighborhoods. The overlays of these resulting in “consensus” neighborhoods as opposed to official city defined ones.

Neighborhood definitions can get controversial as I’ve discovered in my own work. Many people are proud to live in a certain neighborhood, and you don’t want to run afoul of them by telling them anything different. I know this from experience. The consensus map is as good a way of defining neighborhoods as I’ve seen. 

Boston is much more diverse than it often gets credit for. Part of the reason it is not seen as diverse is that most of the immigrant communities are far from where most tourists and business travelers go. This is part of a “small multiples” image showing some of the most common immigrant clusters in the region.

Here is one final Boston quirk. In Philadelphia, a square is just that - a square shaped park. In New York City it is sometimes a square but often a triangle where Broadway intersects a major avenue. In Boston a “square” is usually a haphazard intersection of many roads, often without a park. Woodruff creates a nice small multiples look at the squares of Boston. Here is a small piece of the larger graphic to give a sense of all the different shapes.

Other maps of local interest include unbuilt highways, discontinued transit lines, fall foliage, ducklings,  Smoots, and most importantly proximity to Dunkin’. If you crave more buy the book.

Internet Traffic and the Strait of Hormuz

 Oil isn’t the only thing passing through the Strait of Hormuz. 30% of the world’s data traffic also passes through there and 90% of the traffic between Europe and Asia. Iran is now threatening to charge “user fees” on these cables.

-via Anadolu Agency

These seem like remarkable percentages given the detour that these cables make to get into that area. Here is a close up from that somewhat blurry image.

Credit to the American Geographical Society for alerting me to this map - from a Turkish government news source.

Hiking the Suburbs

 Last week I was given an award by the Newton Conservators for the work I did making an updated trail guide. While Newton, Massachusetts is not a major hiking destination, it is a city of over 85,000 people who will hopefully benefit from knowing where they can go for a nearby hike. We (including the writers and graphics team) put a lot of work into it and I think the end result came out great. Here is a sample page,

and a map detail.

The guide is spiral bound with a pocket that contains a two-sided foldout map showing citywide trails, locations of all the sites and suggested longer walks.

I enjoyed working on this project quite a bit as it was a rare chance to focus on cartography, whereas my normal job tasks are more about managing data, users, web applications and requests. You can see more and buy the guide here.

An Evening at The Map Center

I’ve been meaning to go to The Map Center since I met proprietor Andrew Middleton about 2 years ago at an event. Middleton won a contest to take over the store from its previous owner and moved from California to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to run the place. Finally, a Geospatial Professionals Network event was my excuse to head to Pawtucket.

There are very few map stores left in the United States and most of them specialize in antique maps. The Map Center has carved out a niche in the more interesting (in my opinion) world of creative and eccentric maps.

Also included are books, post cards and other ephemera such as this tray.

For me, it was like being a kid in a candy shop.

Here are some sample books.

Here is a piece of an old Russian rail map.

All the Hams of Massachusetts by Ricky Rainbow Beard.

Of course, I couldn’t leave without buying a bunch of stuff I don’t need*, including this T-shirt,

and a hard copy of the wonderful Cross-Sections through California by RJ Andrews. 

*About the “stuff I don’t need” quote, Middleton says “no one will have their day ruined for lack of a thing I sell. But I do hope it makes people's lives richer and more filled with wonder and curiosity.“

It’s tough running a map store in an age of ubiquitous internet maps and GPS. He is planning on doing some more experiential stuff- classes in QGIS, event hosting and art exhibitions for that very reason. I hope the store survives so I can continue buying items that make my life richer.

Chernobyl Radiation Zone - 40 Years Later

This past Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Radiation was scattered across Europe but the worst of it was concentrated in the 2,600 square mile exclusion zone around Pripyat, the plant’s location. This area will be uninhabitable by humans for a very long time. Informal estimates range from 300 to tens of thousands of years. 

-Map via Reddit

Though a few people have returned to this area, it has mostly reverted to forest with a large wildlife population. This map via Wikipedia, from ten years after the disaster shows radiation accumulation across Ukraine, Belarus and parts of Russia.

Current radiation conditions are shown at SaveEcobot, a project that combines data about the state of the environment, pollution, and environmental protection tools.

These site indicators are published on the map without additional verification, so they are approximate. The average natural level in Ukraine is usually 0.08–0.30 μSv/h. The dark blue and purple locations have significantly elevated radiation levels. Here is a zoomed in version around Pripyat, with the exclusion zone shaded.

A click on the reading will give you a chart of measurements over the past week. This one is from the grounds of the power plant.

This site also monitors fires, water and air quality. I don’t think radiation is factored into the air quality measurements. 

You may also find a few hidden messages in these maps. I’d translate this one, but you might find it rude.