Best of
Maps

2009

Atlas of Remote Islands


Judith Schalansky - 2009
    There are still places on earth that are unknown. Visually stunning and uniquely designed, this wondrous book captures fifty islands that are far away in every sense-from the mainland, from people, from airports, and from holiday brochures. Author Judith Schalansky used historic events and scientific reports as a springboard for each island, providing information on its distance from the mainland, whether its inhabited, its features, and the stories that have shaped its lore. With stunning full-color maps and an air of mysterious adventure, Atlas of Remote Island is perfect for the traveler or romantic in all of us.

The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name


Toby Lester - 2009
    For millennia Europeans believed that the world consisted of three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. They drew the three continents in countless shapes and sizes on their maps, but occasionally they hinted at the existence of a "fourth part of the world," a mysterious, inaccessible place, separated from the rest by a vast expanse of ocean. It was a land of myth--until 1507, that is, when Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure scholars working in the mountains of eastern France, made it real. Columbus had died the year before convinced that he had sailed to Asia, but Waldseemuller and Ringmann, after reading about the Atlantic discoveries of Columbus's contemporary Amerigo Vespucci, came to a startling conclusion: Vespucci had reached the fourth part of the world. To celebrate his achievement, Waldseemuller and Ringmann printed a huge map, for the first time showing the New World surrounded by water and distinct from Asia, and in Vespucci's honor they gave this New World a name: America."The Fourth Part of the World "is the story behind that map, a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, full of outsize thinkers and voyages. Taking a kaleidoscopic approach, Toby Lester traces the origins of our modern worldview. His narrative sweeps across continents and centuries, zeroing in on different portions of the map to reveal strands of ancient legend, Biblical prophecy, classical learning, medieval exploration, imperial ambitions, and more. In Lester's telling the map comes alive: Marco Polo and the early Christian missionaries trek across Central Asia and China; Europe's early humanists travel to monastic libraries to recover ancient texts; Portuguese merchants round up the first West African slaves; Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci make their epic voyages of discovery; and finally, vitally, Nicholas Copernicus makes an appearance, deducing from the new geography shown on the Waldseemuller map that the earth could not lie at the center of the cosmos. The map literally altered humanity's worldview.One thousand copies of the map were printed, yet only one remains. Discovered accidentally in 1901 in the library of a German castle it was bought in 2003 for the unprecedented sum of $10 million by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public display. Lavishly illustrated with rare maps and diagrams, "The Fourth Part of the World "is the story of that map: the dazzling story of the geographical and intellectual journeys that have helped us decipher our world.

The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography


Katharine Harmon - 2009
    Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists' maps, that happy combination of information and illusion that flourishes in basement studios and downtown galleries alike. It is little surprise that, in an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology, contemporary artists are drawn to maps to express their visions. Using paint, salt, souvenir tea towels, or their own bodies, map artists explore a world free of geographical constraints.Katharine Harmon knows this territory. As the author of our best-selling book You Are Here, she has inspired legions of new devotees of imaginative maps. In The Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artistssuch as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, William Kentridge, and Vik Munizand many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. Essays by Gayle Clemans bring an in-depth look into the artists' maps of Joyce Kozloff, Landon Mackenzie, Ingrid Calame, Guillermo Kuitca, and Maya Lin. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.

Trusting God In Hard Times: Lessons From The Life Of Elijah


Bill Crowder - 2009
    Contents - Introduction; Average in Greatness; Times in Courage, Training, Faith, Conflict, & Frailty; A Final Word ("The Time It Is Today"); plus Notes for Personal Reflection (blank pages for journaling/note-taking)

61 Gems on Highway 61: A Guide to Minnesota's North Shore-from Well Known Attractions to Best Kept Secrets


Kathryn Mayo - 2009
    But even the most devout North Shore traveler doesn't know Lake Superior like Kathryn and William Mayo do. These explorers and residents of the region outline the best sites you may not know about. This entertaining guide will lead you to 61 hidden treasures and tourist favorites, so you'll experience the beautiful region in a whole new way.

Olympic National Park


National Geographic Maps - 2009
    National Geographic's Trails Illustrated map of Olympic National Park offers outdoors enthusiasts a valuable tool for exploring the park's old-growth forests, glaciers, untamed rivers, and rugged coastline. Expertly researched and created in partnership with local land management agencies, this map features key areas of interest including Mount Olympus, Ozette Lake, Olympic National Forest, Lake Quinalt, Mount Skokomish Wilderness, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent, and more.With miles of mapped trails including a portion of the Pacific Northwest Trail, this map can guide you off the beaten path and back again in some of the most breathtaking scenery in the region. Designed with a wide range of visitors in mind, this map features detailed and easy to read trails, accurate road network, points of interest, lodging, waterfalls, fishing and boat access, and ranger stations. The map base includes contour lines and elevations for summits, passes and many lakes. A variety of helpful information about regulations, safety tips, and a list of wilderness campsites are included as well.Every Trails Illustrated map is printed on "Backcountry Tough" waterproof, tear-resistant paper. A full UTM grid is printed on the map to aid with GPS navigation.Other features found on this map include: Blue Mountain, Buckhorn Wilderness, Clearwater River, Colonel Bob Wilderness, Elwha River, Hoh River, Lake Crescent, Lake Quinault, Mount Anderson, Mount Carrie, Mount Constance, Mount Deception, Mount Olympus, Mount Pleasant, Mount Skokomish, Mount Skokomish Wilderness, Olympic, Olympic Mountains, Olympic National Forest, Ozette Lake, Port Angeles, Queets River, Sol Duc River, Sooes Peak, Teahwhit Head.Map Scale = 1:100,000Sheet Size = 25.5" x 37.75"Folded Size = 4.25" x 9.25"

The Complete Book of Maps and Geography, Grades 3 - 6


American Education Publishing - 2009
    Each book also features challenging concepts and activities to motivate independent study, and a complete answer key to measure performance and guide instruction.

The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope: How Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed Our Vision of the Universe


Samuel Y. Edgerton Jr. - 2009
    Edgerton brings fresh insight to a subject of perennial interest to the history of art and science in the West: the birth of linear perspective. Edgerton retells the fascinating story of how perspective emerged in early fifteenth-century Florence, growing out of an artistic and religious context in which devout Christians longed for divine presence in their daily lives. And yet, ironically, its discovery would have a profound effect not only on the history of art but on the history of science and technology, ultimately undermining the very medieval Christian cosmic view that gave rise to it in the first place. Among Edgerton's cast of characters is Filippo Brunelleschi, who first demonstrated how a familiar object could be painted in a picture exactly as it appeared in a mirror reflection. Brunelleschi communicated the principles of this new perspective to his artist friends Donatello, Masaccio, Masolino, and Fra Angelico. But it was the humanist scholar Leon Battista Alberti who codified Brunelleschi's perspective rules into a simple formula that even mathematically disadvantaged artists could understand.By looking through a window the geometric beauties of this world were revealed without the theological implications of a mirror reflection. Alberti's treatise, On Painting, spread the new concept throughout Italy and transalpine Europe, even influencing later scientists including Galileo Galilei. In fact, it was Galileo's telescope, called at the time a perspective tube, that revealed the earth to be not a mirror reflection of the heavens, as Brunelleschi had advocated, but just the other way around. Building on the knowledge he has accumulated over his distinguished career, Edgerton has written the definitive, up-to-date work on linear perspective, showing how this simple artistic tool did indeed change our present vision of the universe.

Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape


Michael Siegel - 2009
    New Jersey, small in size with only 4.8 million acres, has a long and complex background. Its past is filled with paradoxes and contradictionsùan agricultural economy for most of its history, New Jersey was also one of the earliest states to turn to manufacturing and chemical research. Today, still championing itself as the "Garden State," New Jersey claims both the highest population density in the country and the largest number of hazardous waste sites. Many see an asphalt oasis, from the New Jersey Turnpike to the Garden State Parkway, with cities that sprawl into adjacent suburbs. Yet, after hundreds of years, large areas of New Jersey remain home to horse farms, cornfields, orchards, nurseries, blueberry bushes, and cranberry bogs.Tracing the changes in environment, land use patterns, demography, transportation, economy, and politics over the course of many centuries, Mapping New Jerseyilluminates the state's transformation from a simple agricultural society to a post-industrial and culturally diverse place inhabited by more people per acre than anywhere else in the country.An innovator in transportation, from railroads to traffic circles to aviation, New Jersey from its beginnings was a "corridor" state, with a dense Native American trail system once crisscrossed on foot, country roads traveled by armies of the American Revolution, and, lately, the rolling wheels of many sedans, SUVs, hybrids, public and commercial vehicles, and freight. Early to industrialize, it also served as the headquarters for Thomas Edison and the development of the modern American economy. Small in territory and crowded with people, the state works to recycle garbage and, at the same time, best utilize and preserve its land.New Jersey has been depicted in useful and quite stunning historical maps, many of the best included in Mapping New Jerseyùcrude maps drawn by sixteenth-century navigators; complex and beautifully decorated pieces created by early Dutch cartographers; land maps plotted by seventeenth-century English settlement surveyors; examples of the nineteenth century's scientific revolution in map making that helped locate topography and important mineral resources; detailed insurance maps that correct London map maker William Faden's 1777-78 classic rendering of the state; and aerial photos, remote sensing, and global positioning system maps generated through twenty-first-century technology breakthroughs in cartography.Integrating new maps, graphs, and diagrams unavailable through ordinary research or Internet searches, Mapping New Jersey is divided into six topical chapters, each accompanied by an introduction and overview telling the story of the state's past and detailing its diversity. Mapping New Jersey, dramatically bold and in full color, travels where New Jersey has gone and the rest of the nation is likely to follow.

Historical Atlas of the American West: With Original Maps


Derek Hayes - 2009
    From the earliest human inhabitants and the first European explorers to the national parks and retirement resorts of today, this extensive collection chronicles the West from uncharted territory to a well-populated Eden. We bear witness as state lines strike through Native American territories, see the frontier crack open and the railroad's iron belt snake across the Plains, and watch as the West's cities, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Albuquerque to Anchorage, rise and prosper. This is the first atlas to compile all the historically significant maps relating to the American West; it includes field sketches of battles, the first maps to show the West, maps depicting mythical rivers and fictional towns, and maps showing early conceptions of California as an island. Distilling many centuries into one fascinating volume, this atlas traces history as redwoods, mountains, and deserts become California, Montana, and Arizona, and offers a rare opportunity to see the west through the eyes of its earliest explorers.

Historic Maps and Views of Paris: 24 Frameable Maps


George Sinclair - 2009
    Every map or view includes the original printing information on the back and is accompanied by brief text that places the image in its historic context and further illuminates its qualities. In addition, Sinclair provides a thoughtful introduction to the collection of images. Printed on high-quality matte paper and exquisitely reproduced, these images are perfect for display in any home, office, library, dorm room, or classroom.

Singing the Songs of the Brokenhearted: Psalms That Comfort and Mend the Soul


Bill Crowder - 2009
    Through their honest, gut-level responses to their real-life circumstances, the psalmists show joy, anger, bitterness, guilt, resentment, vindictiveness, and most of the other emotions all of us feel at some time in our lives. In looking carefully at Psalms 6, 12, 13, 22, 32, 39, 42, 56, 69, and 73, the author explains how they reveal the truth about our own grief, despair, defeat, guilt, fear, desperation, hate, stress, unfairness, and sin. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,” assures the psalmist. In a pain-filled world, only He can heal our broken hearts.