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Being an account of the Cartographic Adventures of 2004
The ERC library had the poster-sale to top all poster sales today. Not only was it free, but the "posters" were all the old maps from their collection - duplicates, inherited as the libraries have merged.
By "map," I don't mean the sort of thing you stick in the back of a book. I'm talking about three-metre wide monstrosities, thick with yellow laquer and rolled on timber beams. The sort of map that takes two people to unfurl; the maps that roll themselves back up into a shape they've occupied for half a century. Maps of geological features, political climates, roads and buildings. A wall-sized map showing Europe at the time of Charlemagne, with Mongolia labelled "Khanate of the Golden Horde."
I have a thing for maps. I can't really explain it, but they have always captivated me. When I was little, I'd sit for hours on rain-soaked holiday mornings, drawing maps of places no-one else had ever imagined. Lithographs, woodcuts, architectural plans, satellite images... they all fascinate me. Unfortunately, I found out about the map clearance after many other people had strip-mined the collection; filling entire cars with dusty rolls of parchament. I think I have about eight nice ones, though - and a "Complete Atlas Of Australia And New Guinea" dating back about fifty years. It has diagrams and descriptions of every major terrain on the continent, and will keep me reading for months.
I still want to take the full Papau New Guinea survey map for my aunt, but it's as long as my bedroom and I'm not sure that she'll have room to store it anywhere...
By "map," I don't mean the sort of thing you stick in the back of a book. I'm talking about three-metre wide monstrosities, thick with yellow laquer and rolled on timber beams. The sort of map that takes two people to unfurl; the maps that roll themselves back up into a shape they've occupied for half a century. Maps of geological features, political climates, roads and buildings. A wall-sized map showing Europe at the time of Charlemagne, with Mongolia labelled "Khanate of the Golden Horde."
I have a thing for maps. I can't really explain it, but they have always captivated me. When I was little, I'd sit for hours on rain-soaked holiday mornings, drawing maps of places no-one else had ever imagined. Lithographs, woodcuts, architectural plans, satellite images... they all fascinate me. Unfortunately, I found out about the map clearance after many other people had strip-mined the collection; filling entire cars with dusty rolls of parchament. I think I have about eight nice ones, though - and a "Complete Atlas Of Australia And New Guinea" dating back about fifty years. It has diagrams and descriptions of every major terrain on the continent, and will keep me reading for months.
I still want to take the full Papau New Guinea survey map for my aunt, but it's as long as my bedroom and I'm not sure that she'll have room to store it anywhere...
O_O
Old maps are beautiful, there are so many dreams and wonders still stored in them. here tehre be dragons, and all that.