Samantha’s map of her Vermont neighborhood centers on a large green field ringed by roads, with a bunch of fun things to explore: a pond, a stream, a sinkhole, and even a snake island. All of these features are carefully labeled alongside her house, the woods, the dinosaur hills, and the chicken coop. The circular […]
Krista’s friend, Dimitris, drew this map for her when she was traveling through Greece. No one could remember the exact address of her friend’s mother’s place where she would be staying, so she used this map to find the house after arriving on the island.
Janel drew this for guests attending a progressive dinner party where each course is held at a different home. Attendees were all apprentices at the Fabric Workshop and Museum and the homes they visited were in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. She idealizes the somewhat confusing layout of streets and highlights the triangular structure of […]
This drawing hits on all of the best qualities of hand-drawn maps. It includes personal recommendations, can be used for navigation, and has a striking visual appearance. Justin drew it for his friends when they were visiting him in Venice, California. They wanted to spend some time checking out what made the neighborhood unique, so […]
This map traces a police chase that grabbed the attention of people living in the Tree Streets neighborhood of Waynesboro, Virginia. One of Tony’s coworkers witnessed part of the chase, and drew this map to show where he was standing when the cars came around a corner.
Neal is known among his friends for his mapmaking abilities, and they regularly call on him to draw maps to local points of interest. This map suggests he also has a gift for knowing when cartography could be turned into a punchline. Drawn on notebook paper, it offers formally composed directions from 9 South Maple […]
As far as I can tell, this is the first map I collected. Drawn 10 years before I founded the Hand Drawn Map Association, it provides directions to three places in Chicago: the music venues Lounge Ax (now closed) and Empty Bottle, as well as the BFA graduation exhibition for the School of the Art […]
Kees found this map inside an old ledger he bought at a flea market in 1986. Two pages were an autobiography and one page was this hand-drawn map of the author’s neighborhood. The autobiography starts: Life began for me in 1922, but I don’t remember much before 1930. The author goes on to provide a […]
Michael sent us this map that his son Eli (age 8) recently drew of their home town, Munster, Indiana. We absolutely love this map and hope Eli continues to draw them. The detail is really impressive. Go ahead, compare it with Google maps. We’d definitely prefer to use Eli’s map the next time we’re in […]
Tom sent us this map drawn by his mother, Ilse Barker. Ilse, also known as the novelist Kathrine Talbot, created the map shortly after moving to Midhurst from Bexley Hill, a move that was prompted by the death of her husband, Kit. It’s a wonderful example of a strip map where the main artery, A286, […]
Victoria gave us this map one night at the opening of a municipalWORKSHOP project in Wilmington, Delaware. She drew it with the help of her friend while the two of them reminisced about their hometown. We see a single road running from top to bottom connecting interstate 95 with the Kirkwood Highway (Route 2). Various […]
Amanda drew this map for her family when they came to visit her while she was studying abroad in Paris. Since they were arriving while she was still in class, she mapped out her neighborhood and included some recommendations for things they could do until she came home that evening. She even left her ATM […]