In April 2010, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano sent an ash cloud across northern Europe, closing airspace and stranding millions of travelers. This map documents one person’s response: an overland drive from Uppsala to Utrecht, through Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, at a time when flying was not an option. The route south is […]
Gregory’s annotated map documents a multi-day hike along the extended Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in October 1986. Campsites, passes, and Inca ruins are noted alongside candid dispatches from the trail — altitude sickness, a companion nicknamed Flounder getting lost, and a drawing session at the ruins of Winay Wana cut short by a caretaker’s […]
In 1992, during the aftermath of the Rodney King trial, Alan Scott drew this map of his neighborhood in Los Angeles. It documents the businesses that were looted the day of the verdict. The slogan at the top, Be There When the Night Ignites, is from an ad for a special effects show at Disneyland […]
I used to love our drop.io fileshare for all the maps, like this one, that people would upload and never explain to me. Ah, the early internet. 😭 All we really know about this map is that it includes a bus route in Los Angeles, and a reference to a timely 2026 topic: the possible […]
Marshall’s richly illustrated map of his local area in Londonderry, New Hampshire captures a community defined by its orchards — oversized apples crowd the landscape alongside churches, farms, horses, and the the everyday activity of small-town life. He noted that some of the buildings depicted have since disappeared to development (and likely even more so […]
Lawrence, a surveyor working in Afghanistan at the time, sent us two maps of rural locations in Nangarhar province found by a friend. Both were working maps used by public offices to indicate the location of villages, roads, schools, and other services. The blue map is the more geographically conventional of the two, depicting the […]
Alex and his wife Beate sent us some maps found in their file maintained by the Stasi (the East German secret police). Alex told us, “My wife and I were suspected to be spies for the Dutch military. We stayed with family close to a Soviet airbase and after four visits we were arrested by […]
Jennifer drew this map for a co-worker over lunch who was interested in visiting Maple Grove, Minnesota for a shopping expedition. Many of the chain stores listed on the map (Linen’s n Things, Pier 1, Borders, etc) are no longer with us making the map a historical trace of retail shopping in the early aughts.
This map depicts the location of the Large Hadron Collider built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) beneath the France/Switzerland border. Kersting drew it at a pub in St. Paul, Minnesota over a discussion with friends. A few days before the particle collider was set to be used for the first time, the […]
Glen recently sent us this intricate map he drew a few years ago. It was used to help memorize places with historical importance during the classical period for a class on Greek history.