Thursday 5 March 2009

What do you call someone who collects maps?

... a nerd.

Or so says WikiAnswers. I was trying to find out what the official name for a map collector is and this is all I came up with. Cartophily, which is what I'd assumed, is actually the term for someone who collects cigarette cards. Perhaps a cartographile?

Anyway, you'll notice I've had a quick redesign. I'd got a bit bored of the pink, and I decided that my slight obsession with historic maps deserved an outlet, albeit a very small one.

Liam and I have been attempting to make our mark on the rented house we're in, and so have been on the look out for good posters. We've done pretty well, with a blow up of an old 1930s Newfoundland stamp showing codfish. This is the real thing, but you can just about make out our poster in the previous post, behind my hat.


And we've also sourced a couple of prints of historic maps. There's this one of the fishing banks in the 17th century:


As well as the Icelandic Skálholt map from 1570, which shows Britain, Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Island/Labrador and Newfoundland.


I got very excited, however, after chatting to the folks at the Map Library at MUN, as they directed me to this fabulous site of theirs, which has loads of historic scanned maps of the area available to download free! This is where I filched the map for my header.

Now, if only I had a printer...


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2 comments:

Blackbeard said...

If that's the case then I am indeed a nerd. Maps are beautiful, they tell us a lot: not just about the land they describe (in fact most times they don't tell a lot about it) but also about the viewpoint of the cartographer. Maps can be powerful political tools. I'll shut up now. I am sure you know the Perry Castañeda Library Maps. Some nice ones there.

tankgirl said...

I really like the Icelandic Skálholt map and the new look suits you.