Emancipation National Historic Trail

It took over two years for the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston, Texas. Specifically June 19, 1965 hence the Juneteenth holiday. Galveston was the largest slave market west of New Orleans. The newly emancipated fled Galveston to Freedmen's Town and other parts of Houston that had large African American communities.

via Texas Highways

In 2019 the US House of Representatives passed the Emancipation National Historic Trail Act. This act would create the second National Historic Trail centered on the African American experience, after the Selma to Montgomery trail in Alabama. The map above traces the approximate route of this trail.

Map for Bloomsday

I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce, few people have. Even fewer have understood it. To honor the annual Bloomsday festival going on right now, here is a map showing the wanderings and locations within the book. The map about as easy to understand as the plot itself.

I have not found much information on the map's author, Aimee Stewart. Her company seems to have disappeared from the internet. 

The routes of the main characters are color coded by episode (or chapter) and the line pattern represents the mode of transportation (walking, vehicle, dreaming or floating). The novel begins with Stephen Dedalus at the Sandycove Martello Tower on the coast near Dublin while the second episode features him lecturing about the Greek statesman Pyrrhus. The clocks indicate the time of day, as the entire novel takes place during a single day (Bloomsday - June 16th, 1904).

In episode 8, Leopold Bloom eats a cheese sandwich at Davy Byrne's pub while contemplating his wife's infidelity, then heads to the National Library.

The final episode consists of Molly Bloom's thoughts as she lies in bed with her eye-less husband. 

There is a very subtle grid on the map with a street index at the bottom. On the side next to the color legend is a list of symbols. The meaning of this is unclear as none of these appear on the map.

Stewart states "The novel needs to be made more accessible, especially to us Dubliners, so I hope this helps." I'm not sure it does.

Of course if you really want to clear things up you can look at this blurry copy of a map by Vladimir Nabokov who said "Instead of perpetuating the pretentious nonsense of Homeric, chromatic, and visceral chapter headings, instructors should prepare maps of Dublin with Bloom’s and Stephen’s intertwining itineraries clearly traced."

via Paris Review

Indigenous Map of Southern Ontario

Christi Belcourt is a Metis artist who "indigenized" the regional maps and surveys of Albert Salter into a map called "Good Land". 

One side of the map has the English text that most people are familiar with, while the other side uses indigenous place names and commentary.

This level of commentary can be seen in this zoomed in image showing Toronto and areas to the north. Highway 401, running along Lake Ontario is described as a graveyard for animals.

It would be nice to have a higher resolution version where the legend can be read but I can’t find one the Decolonial Atlas or on Belcourt’s web site.

The map title comes from Salters use of the term "good land" repeatedly on his map of the north shore of Lake Huron.

via UWM Libraries

More about the "Good Land" map can be seen on the Decolonial Atlas.

Middle Earth Transit Map

Hard to believe that those dumb hobbits risked their lives walking all the way to Mordor when they could have just taken the Orange Line. 

Oh wait, the tunnel under the mountain is closed 

so they would have had to switch to the Red Line at Bree and then made another transfer to get to Mount Doom. 

Still that seems like a minor inconvenience when compared to risking imprisonment by nasty spider. The Middle Earth Transit Map ("One does not simply walk") was created by Don Wilde Art. He also has a nice set of travel posters.

You can explore the map on Reddit.

Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA

Coming out this summer from Belt Publishing (publishers of the "50 Maps" book series on Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo) is the Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA.  

"Ferguson, Missouri, became the epicenter of America’s racial tensions after the 2014 murder of Michael Brown and the protests that followed in its wake. Though this suburb just outside St. Louis might have seemed like an average midwestern town, the activism that exploded there after Brown’s killing laid bare how longstanding municipal planning policies had led to racial segregation, fragmentation, poverty, and police targeting." - quoted from the press release.

Author Patty Heyda uses over 100 maps to illustrate the forces that have defined "inner ring" suburbs such as Ferguson. Beginning from the start of the development of the St. Louis region, here is part of a map showing the confluence of rivers and trade routes. The rivers are sized by flow.

NOTE: these maps are chosen from what has been shared with me in press releases.

 The above map shows how different neighborhoods gradually became more auto oriented and less pedestrian friendly in more recent eras. Area 2 is where Brown was killed. Here is the citywide map with areas 1-3 outlined.

There are some interesting maps illustrating how the lack of polling locations (orange dots) in primarily Black neighborhoods (those shaded with diagonal red hatch lines) help to decrease voter participation.

-via email from Publisher

Here is a recent (2018) voter participation map showing lower turnout in the lighter areas in the southern, more Black parts of the city.

 For more and to order see the page at Belt Publishing

German Food with Protected Geographical Origin

This map shows some of the 96 foods in Germany that have a protected geographic origin from the European Union. 

For example curry sausages must be produced within the city limits of Berlin or they can't be marketed as Berlin currywurst. Other geographically protected foods include Bavarian pretzels, Swabian spaetzle, Holstein carp, Frankfurter Grüne Sauce and Spreewald horseradish. Hovering over each place gives you the name of the protected food.

-via Deutschland National Atlas

 

Nicknames of the States

Here's a strange one: An 1884 promotional map for a company that manufactured hog rings (like nose rings for hogs, you can read more about those here, if you can stomach a little animal cruelty). 

Each state is shown with a representative ring-wearing hog.

Complete with a hog-clown in the margin.

Many of these nicknames are strange but Missouri wins for best.

The full map can be seen from the Cornell University Digital Collections.