My wife found a treasure trove Life Magazines from the 1940's on the curb. The issue from 75 years ago today has some excellent maps showing the war situation.

In addition to this overall map are three maps showing greater details of the western, southern and eastern fronts.
A zoomed in view shows the slow movement of the line of Allied control in Normandy between June 6 and August 18th, 1944.
The Southern Front map shows the recent landings in southern France.
The simple and clearly readable topography is a nice touch. Here is the Eastern Front.
Here is a little detail with the August 18, 1944 battle line clearly shown.

This map, via Project Gutenberg, shows the battle lines of April 10, 1918 and the areas of France and Britain that could be reached by the German guns that had been used used to shell Paris a few weeks previously.
The map is from The Story of the Great War. This quote provides context.

"The Germans sprung a new form of frightfulness on the Allies when at 8 o'clock in the morning of March 23, 1918, they bombarded Paris with long-range guns. At intervals of about twenty minutes shells of 240 millimeters (about 9.5 inches) reached the capital, killing ten persons and wounding others. The shortest distance from Paris to the front was over sixty-two miles. The first daylight aeroplane raid followed this bombardment, but did little damage. Public interest was centered on the mysterious gun that could drop shells on the city from such a great distance. Pieces of shells examined were found to bear rifling marks showing that they had not been dropped, but were fired from some kind of gun. Later the French located several of these "mystery guns," and some were destroyed. The only purpose they could serve was to terrify the people of Paris, otherwise they were of no military importance."

Here's a zoomed in view to better appreciate the details.

A hundred years ago the armistice was signed ending World War I. One of the more interesting maps showing the situation at the time is from New Zealand History.
The front line on Armistice Day is shown in purple. The gray area to the east was evacuated by Germany after the Armistice was signed. Yellow areas are parts of Germany that were occupied by Allied Forces. Germany was given two weeks to evacuate the gray area and four weeks to withdraw their forces across the Rhine. Lands to the west of the Rhine were occupied as shown as well as three 30 km zones around the bridges at Cologne, Mainz and Koblenz. These areas were to be occupied for 15 years according to the Treaty of Versailles. However, the occupation was ended a little early,  in 1930.

The colors could be more logical and it is difficult to distinguish some of them on the map. 

There are three other cities including Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, where you can listen to the sounds of the tailor and copper smith among others. You can create a nice orchestral cacophony by clicking on a bunch of sounds.
Also included are London with traffic noises, train announcements, church bells and street musicians,
and Le Havre, France, where you can listen to maritime traffic and the blessing of the ships.
The project has a platform where you can register a login and contribute your own sounds.

Some people see geography everywhere. I once mapped a New Jersey-shaped sidewalk crack. French Cartographer Jules Grandin has a collection called #Thingsmaps that labels cartographic features seen in clouds,
doors,
coffee,
crosswalks,
 and salad greens - this one looks pre-arranged.
Even fantasy worlds-here's Westeros, from a gap in the trees.
Scroll thru the collection here

Cartographers have been trying to figure out how to best show election maps for a long time. Here in the United States, the typical county map can badly represent vote totals when large counties with tiny populations dominate the map. In 1860's Paris, a cartographer named Louis Montigny used this interesting approach to map the city's neighborhoods.
A square centimeter represents 1000 votes, with the political parties color coded. This clearly shows who won each neighborhood but also gives a great picture of how well each party performed. Yellow represents the governing party of Napoleon III, while opposition parties are colored blue, pink and red. Socialists are orange. Viewing the entire city, there are some pretty clear patterns of strength and weaknesses of the different parties.
As you approach the city's edge, the larger, less populated neighborhoods get the appropriate level of visual prominence.
I discovered this map on Cartographia, a blog has been inactive for many years. The blog post illustrates the historical importance of this map as it shows the beginning of the decline of Napoleon III's empire. His party was clearly losing popular support as shown by the absence of yellow on much of this map. Shortly after this election he began a war with Prussia in order to boost his legitimacy. The Franco-Prussian War was a disaster for France and spelled the end of the Second Empire. A detailed history can be found on the blog post.


See a large, high resolution version of the map here.

I found this map online showing the large breeds (mostly horse and cows but also donkeys and mules) of France.
It appears to be a classroom map from 1960 from what I can tell with my bad French translation skills. There are a couple of zoomed in looks on this page.
The top corner compares horses around the world by average(?) size while the bottom right corner does the same for cows.

For 52 euros you can buy a copy here.

Brie is not just a cheese but an historical region of France. The region roughly corresponds to today's Seine et Marne Department.
This cheese wheel from Formaggio Kitchen shows a faint map of the region. Here is a modern one with a similar color scheme - via Urbaliste.
Here is a more legible map of the region via HotelsTravel.

Women in Cartography is an excellent exhibition at the Boston Public Library. It runs until March 27th. If you don't get a chance to visit in person you can view the exhibition online here. In December I got a chance to see it. Here are some of the highlights.

Physiographic Diagram of the Western Pacific Ocean - Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen, 1971
Geologist/Cartographer Marie Tharp created the first map of the ocean floor. Originally this map was credited solely to Heezen, her research partner. It is displayed on the floor. Here is a picture I took looking down.
The numbers indicate depths of the sea bottom and height of undersea mountains. The colored areas are land, in this case the Hawaiian Islands rising from the depths of the Pacific.

Mappemonde Projetée sur l’Horizon d’Angers - Céleste Babin, 1839
This double hemisphere map was done by a student in Angers, France. The left hemisphere is centered on Angers and the right one on its antipode (opposite side of the earth.)
The detail below shows off some nice hand calligraphy and a view from Angers.
A General Map of North America …  - Mary Ann Rocque, 1761
Rocque carried on her husband's business after his death. This map was credited to "M.A. Rocque" obscuring (possibly intentionally) that it was produced by a woman.  

A New Map of ye Seat of War in Italy - Ann Lea and Robert Morden, 1701
Ann Lea also took over her husband's map business after his death. The map shows areas of northern Italy that were fought over between France and the Austrian Empire before Italian unification.

“Nationalities Map No. 1,” from Hull-House Maps and Papers … - Agnes Sinclair Holbrook, 1895
Hull House was a settlement house for female immigrants in Chicago. Holbrook, a house resident designed the map based on Charles Booth's income maps of London (previously mentioned in this post about my visit to Chicago's Newberry Library.) Other house residents helped her gather data for the neighborhood.
The Attack on Bunker Hill in the Peninsula of Charlestown the 17th of June 1775 - Mildred Giddings Burrage, 1926 
Burrage was a Maine-based artist. She created this map/scene using layers of Gesso to build up a sense of topography.

The exhibit concludes with a technology section including the following maps.

Lower East Ride: Adapting to Change - Maryam Khabazi, Designer, 2013
Created by Green Map NYC, this map highlights the impact of climate change and natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy and shows resources to reduce energy consumption.


Making History - GIS and Women - Linda Loubert, PhD - 2014-
Dr. Loubert built this crowd-sourced webmap to document thousands of women working in the field of GIS.
You can see the entire online map here or by clicking the image above. I know some of these people! GIS women rock!