The Humble, Messy Beauty of the Hand-Drawn Map

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  04.28.10 | 3:51 PM ET

Following up on her excellent series about signs, Slate’s Julia Turner meditates on the power of homemade maps, and offers a selection from Slate readers. Here’s a taste from the intro:

Since early man first drew on his cave wall—including marks that some scholars argue were maps of local rivers and settlements—we’ve been sketching out routes to guide one another to the market and to the mountain top. These humble maps can be beautiful. They can also be messy, indecipherable, inaccurate, and unattractive.

Tags: Geography for Fun and Profit, Maps, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for The Humble, Messy Beauty of the Hand-Drawn Map

romel 05.16.10 | 8:41 PM ET

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