Baltimore 1815

Bearings of Baltimore Circa 1815 is a fantastically detailed interactive historic map of Baltimore. This 2.5 billion pixel image was created from a 3D model that was a 2+ year collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Maryland Historical Society. The map is set in 1815, shortly after the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812 (though this battle took place late in 1814).

When you click to go to the interactive map, you get a warning about needing Google Chrome, but it's worked for me in various other browsers and mobile devices. If you click on the sites at the bottom, you get automatically zoomed to that part of the image. The level of detail is pretty spectacular.

The highlighted text has pop-ups with more information about each site - including my favorite, the Mud Machine.

 There is also a 2014 overlay showing some of the current buildings for better orientation.

 Thanks to Maps Mania for alerting me to this fantastic site and distracting me for hours from what I really should be doing. Enjoy exploring!

The title BEARINGS is actually an acronym for Bird's Eye Annotated Representational Image/Navigable Gigapixel Scene.

California Rail Map

Alfred Twu and a team of designers made a subway-style California Rail Map. Here are a couple of screen shots - the whole thing can be seen here.

Like most subway style maps the geography is distorted, in this case to a crazy degree. The San Francisco peninsula sticks way out like a sore thumb, grotesquely swollen actually. Yes, the top of the image below is Oregon.

To fully appreciate the distortion, I made my own map of the state's shape according to Twu, et al.

Of course the implication of good transit is very overstated here. Some of these routes only run once a day and many don't run at all on the weekends. Still it's fun to imagine a car-free California.

Papercraft Maps

Carla Eráusquin Bayona, a Peruvian artist makes 3D "papercraft" maps - made from cards or heavy stock paper. This map highlighting Colombia's attempted rebranding as a technology hub appears in the June issue of Fast Company. 

 Here are some details from her Behance page. You can also see some of her process there.

For an older map of Peru see here.

Beeswax Maps

Ren Ri is a Chinese artist and beekeeper. He uses beeswax as an artistic medium, creating sculptures and maps.

Above is "Indo-Malay Islands" from his "Geometric Series." Maps and other artworks were recently displayed in the PearlLam Galleries in Hong Kong. These images were taken from the exhibit's catalogue.
 "Korean Peninsula"

 "Mongolia"

 "Argentina" and "Scandinavian Peninsula"

"South Pole"

 

 "World"