Tag: america

• 189 - Painting Peru

  over 4 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  Christa Dichgans (°1940 in Berlin) is a German painter who has shown a proclivity towards cartography in her work. Generally, her map paintings consist of a monochrome background surmounted with the contours of a country or continent, filled up with stuff of all sorts. ‘Amerika’ represents a ... Read More

• 188 - Panama Kiss

  over 4 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  As early as 1534, king Charles V of Spain suggested a canal in Panama across the Central American isthmus. Even with the primitive state of cartography of the day, it wasn’t hard to see how such a canal would facilitate trade and travel by eliminating the lengthy, dangerous shipping route ... Read More

• 183 - Map of the USA, Made in Japan

  over 4 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  “This map is basically what would happen if you got a bunch of Japanese guys in a room, got them drunk, and then asked them to draw what they could remember about America on a bar napkin. Hell, that’s probably how this game was originally designed,” says Andrew Vestal on Yukihime.com, here ... Read More

• 162 - The United States of Florida

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  “It takes a big state to absorb the entire North every winter,” the New York Times wrote on February 2 of this year. “Florida is pulling it off.” In wintertime, the Sunshine State takes in ‘snowbirds’ from the rest of the country (and beyond). Interestingly, these cold-weather refugees seek ... Read More

• 161 - Map of the San Francisco Quake and Fire (1906)

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  On the night of April 17th in 1906, the world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso wowed San Franciscans at the Tivoli Opera House with his performance in Carmen. The next day would – unfortunately – prove much more memorable for San Francisco. That Wednesday morning, at twelve minutes past five, an ... Read More

• 160 - The United Countries of Baseball

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  Although also very popular in East Asia and in other parts of the American continent, baseball is the quintessential North American sport, early in the 20th century even labelled the ‘national pastime’ of the USA. It remains so today: in the US, the words ‘ballgame’ and ‘ballpark’ automatically ... Read More

• 150 - Pinsonia, An Imaginary Province of Brazil

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

    Cândido Mendes de Almeida (1818-1881) was a Brazilian journalist, politician and author who in 1873 published the Atlas do Império do Brasil (‘Atlas of the Brazilian Empire’). Included in that atlas is this map of the province of Pinsonia. But at the time there was no such state. And whether ... Read More

• 147 - The Stillborn State of Sequoyah

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  The US state of Oklahoma almost entered the Union as two states – Oklahoma and Sequoyah. The latter is the name of a failed attempt in the early 20th century by Native Americans, who formed (and still form) a large part of the population in eastern Oklahoma, to constitute a state of their own ... Read More

• 144 - Single Guys Live in LA, Single Girls in NYC

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  This map out of the National Geographic magazine was sent to me by Xyzzy, a name that gives nothing away as to gender affiliation or relationship status. If Xyzzy is female and single, she’s a bit more likely than average to live on the East Coast of the US. If he’s male and single, he might ... Read More

• 143 - Ex Unum Pluribus: New American Nations

  almost 5 years ago

  Frank Jacobs in Strange Maps

  The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for ‘Out of Many, One’. Matt Kirkland, who provided me this map, thinks the US has become too unwieldy, and proposes to go the other way: Ex Unum Pluribus *, ‘Out of One, Many’. Mr Kirkland’s website “is a bit of a grassroots movement ... Read More