Joining the conversation--Blogs & Listservs

Blogs:

Big Map Blog. (2011). Interesting maps, historical maps, big maps [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.bigmapblog.com/

The author of this blog has a mission to make available the “thousands of old, beautiful maps that are sadly being kept from the public that deserves them” for viewing. Each blog entry features a map, which can be zoomed in on, panned, and viewed in full screen mode. The blog author includes a small amount of information with each image. The blog archives can be searched by keyword, or browsed by date and category. The blog is currently active and has archives dating back to March 2011. The following image is from a recent blog post; this map (1796) is of the Kingdom of France, represented in the form of a ship.

http://www.bigmapblog.com/2011/map-of-france-as-a-ship-1796/

Brown, K. (2011). Geographicus: Antique map blog [Blog]. Retrieved from WordPress website: http://www.geographicus.com/blog/

This is a blog for the Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, a dealer specializing in “ in fine and rare antiquarian cartography and historic maps of the 15th though 19th centuries.” Blog posts feature a historic map, accompanied by a history of the map, the geographic area in the time period it represents, and information about the cartographer and type of map. The Geographicus website also has an online gallery of antique maps for sale, as well as a viewable archive of sold maps. The blog is currently active, and has archives dating back to April 2009. The blog archives are also browse-able by category.

Crowe, J. (2011). The map room: A weblog about maps [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.maproomblog.com

“The Map Room is a blog about maps by Jonathan Crowe. It covers everything from collecting to the latest in geospatial technology from a generalist’s perspective.” To read blogs about ancient and historic maps, go to “archives” and check out the following categories: “Antique Maps,” “History of Cartography,” and Historical Maps.” There are also blog posts on such thins as general maps, GIS, cartography, and more. The map room is presently inactive, but has a blog archive ranging from 3/2003 to 6/2010.

Old maps online: Open source & online tools for old maps [Blog]. (2011). Retrieved from Moravian Library website: http://blog.oldmapsonline.org/

This is the blog for “Project OldMapsOnline.org.” The purpose fo this project is to develop and improve “open-source software tools for map publishing, processing, georeferencing and spatial search in map collections.” This blog is currently active, and has archives dating back to 2008.

Listserv:

MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography [Listserv]. (2003, March 12). Retrieved from HES & DE GRAAF Publishers, Antiquariaat Forum website: http://www.maphist.nl/index.html

“MapHist, the Map History Discussion List, is an e-mail discussion group whose primary focus is historical maps, atlases, globes and other cartographic documents. The list is open to all persons interested in the history of cartography and discussion is encouraged on all aspects of this broad subject.”