Blog
Recollections of the Battle of Surigao Straits (Samar Island)
Transcription of a previously unpublished account of the Battle off Samar from a signalman aboard the escort carrier U.S.S. Fanshaw Bay.
Trail of the Rainbow Division
The route of the 42nd Division across Europe during WWII is explored with this documentary and map.
More than Maps – Architectural Diagrams of the Dane County Historical Society
An interesting project involving 20th century architectural diagrams from Wisconsin.
A Distant Branch of the Family Tree – Part I
The holiday season is a perfect time to reflect on family, especially those we miss most dearly. In early 2023, my wife lost her grandmother, a remarkable woman who lived to be 98 – she golfed a 90 on her 90th birthday! The life of Eleanor Custis Wright could take up...
Mapping Change #2 – S.D.U.K. Maps of Lake Michigan
For the second blog of my Mapping Change series, I’m excited to explore four maps of the Upper Midwest created by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (S.D.U.K.) and published between 1833 and c. 1861.
Maps for ‘The Million.’
‘The Million’ is a term used for the masses of laboring public in Victorian-era Britain. The S.D.U.K. was founded in 1826 and would publish over 200 different maps that provided cheap geographical education to England’s ‘Million.’
A Revelation in Road Guides
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of transportation maps, especially those published during the first half of the 20th century. Such a short period of time saw greater changes to human mobility than any other span in history. The widespread adoption of the airplane and...
You Never Know What you Might Find…
It's not uncommon to encounter random odds and ends when looking through old books and atlases. Dried and pressed leaves, scribbled notes, and newspaper clippings are some of the 'surprises' that I come across most frequently. More often than not, these finds are a...
Mapping Change #1 – Indiana DNR
This is the first post to explore a sequence of maps over time. By showcasing the various maps together in one location, I hope to highlight both their similarities and differences as well as identify specific trends and changes. Below we have four pictorial maps of...
Love is in the Air and on the Map
To (somewhat belatedly) celebrate Valentine's Day this year, I wanted to share with you a love story that can be traced on maps going back decades. It all started in 1962 with the establishment of TourMap, Inc. by Robert (Dick) and Marjorie Ingalls of Seattle,...