Festival of Maps Chicago – Geography Sails in the Windy City

With the popularity of online maps, personal navigation devices (PNDs), and GIS we can easily forget that it all started on paper. We can forget the trials and tribulations of those who made early geographic discoveries, those who labored to produce early maps. In a world of instant information about where we are, many of […]

Super Tuesday, Lousy Maps?

The U.S. primary election yesterday took place in 24 states on what is called Super Tuesday. Of course the day is super important for those trying to become the next president. The event begs for maps to show us what’s going on before, during, and after. Unfortunately, the popular news Web sites as a group […]

Ancient Mechanism Found - Possibly Used for Navigation, Mapmaking

More than 100 years after its finding, scientists identified some metal fragments from a ship wreck off the coast of Greece as the earliest known mechanical computing device; it is 2,100 years old. Called the Antikythera Mechanism, the device looks like a clock mechanism. However, it wasn’t until 1,000 years later that such technology was […]