As much as we love a good read sometimes a picture or a map can speak volumes. Inspired by the introduction to our facsimile edition of John Thomson’s magnificent 19th-century Atlas of Scotland – which points out that atlases originated as a ‘product of Renaissance geographical enquiry’, travellers’ accounts and mathematical accuracy but were soon created more thematically – we delved through our bookshelves and found there’s seemingly no end to the diversity of information maps can convey. From imagined islands to mountain views that can only be seen with the aid of satellite technology, and from military campaigns to life in the oceans, here are some of the facts and curiosities we’ve uncovered among our favourite atlases.
The Curious Map Book by Ashley Baynton-Williams
As a counter to the quest for accuracy that typifies cartography, this volume focuses on those maps in which creativity is prioritized. Among them is a woodcut of the island featured in Thomas More’s Utopia. Thought to have been made by Ambrosius Holbein or his brother, Hans Holbein the younger, in 1518, the idealized society is shown as having a skull-like formation, the memento mori format possibly suggested by More’s name.
Unseen Extremes by Stefan Dech, Reinhold Messner and Nils Sparwasser
The ‘Jewel of Snows’, Kailash in Tibet has never been climbed – attempting to do so would be an act of sacrilege – but it is circumambulated by followers of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and the Bön faith in an act of pilgrimage. It is one of 13 mountains featured in Unseen Extremes, which is the result of a project to collect satellite data and use it to render images of mountainous landscapes from viewpoints unreachable by humans.
The Atlas of Disease by Sandra Hempel
Despite advances in microbiology, smallpox remains the only human infectious disease to have been officially declared eradicated from the world. Showing how it was overcome first in northern Europe in the late 19th century but not until the late 1970s in Africa, this volume explains the spread and longevity of this disease – evidence suggests it was afflicting people in Egypt around 1100 BCE – as well as 19 others.
An Uncommon Atlas by Alastair Bonnett
According to UNESCO ‘after global warming, language loss is the earth’s most acute crisis’ and of the 6,000 or so languages spoken across the world more than half are expected to become extinct in the next century. Among the maps in this atlas is one that locates 577 critically endangered languages – those spoken only by the oldest generation.
Atlas of the Blitzkrieg by Gary Komar and Robert Kirchubel
While the story of Dunkirk is well known, the maps of the region and the English Channel presented in this volume offer a sobering depiction of the extent of the crisis. Alongside the accompanying text, they make clear not just the weight and location of the German forces that were surrounding the Allied troops on land, but the extent of the mine fields they faced on their passage to Dover.
Maps of the World’s Oceans by Enrico Lavagno and Angelo Mojetta
Among its colourful pages detailing ocean currents and marine creatures are notes on how the world’s waters have been used by indigenous populations and explorers – stone objects found on Crete suggest that people were navigating the Mediterranean 130,000 years ago. Age 9+
