Map Acquisition Syndrome - is there a cure? I have been given so many maps by people clearing out their apartments that it has overwhelmed my filing system. Many have been sitting in shopping bags for a year now while I figure out what to do with them. Here are some paper maps people have foisted on me knowing I can't say no. This is therapy-before I file them away I need to show off my bounty.

Insight FlexiMap of Budapest - so shiny it's hard to get a good picture.
For contrast here's the Budapest tourist agency map  
Details from the shiny flip side of the Insight map - the road to Lake Balaton and the Metro

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

This map hangs on the wall of my local cheese shop.
It shows the "zone of production" for Pamigiano-Reggiano cheese. This includes the provinces of Parma, Reggio-Emilia, Modena and parts of Bologna and Mantua. The map has lots of nice quaint details but is also more geographically accurate than many pictorial maps.
According to Wikipedia, a combination of the morning's whole milk and the previous evening's skim milk are heated in copper vats, as in the detail above. The cheese is cooled, put into a wheel form and washed with brine. It is then aged for 12-30 months before it can be sold in town.
Or worn on your head -
- though Packers fans seem to prefer Swiss.

I mostly avoid posting stuff from the Atlas of Prejudice despite their popularity. Lazy cliches are fun but a bit predictable:
However, I am quite fond of some of the maps listed under "Our Collective Eating Disorder"
For example, the Culinary Map of Europe According to Italy.
Beyond the delightfully ridiculous non-realistic concentric circles, there are other nice details like the names of the parallels and meridians. Also, the subtle digs at the US and China (didn't they invent pasta?)

The Culinary Horrors map is also fun, though I have no idea how accurate it is.
 Now back to my duck blood soup.

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!

See live gondolas and other water buses (vaporetti) in real time with this interactive map from Edvardas Ščerbavičius

The map uses open data from the water transit company (Actv) to present real time movement of water craft. The boats, routes and stops are clickable for more information.
Or, if you don't feel like interacting you can just kick back and watch the show. The plot's a bit slow but I'm enjoying it.

Google Maps has now been at it for ten years! Here is a quote from their first announcement on the Google Blog titled Mapping Your Way, February 8th, 2005.

We think maps can be useful and fun, so we've designed Google Maps to simplify how to get from point A to point B. Say you're looking for "hotels near LAX." With Google Maps you'll see nearby hotels plotted right on a crisp new map (we use new rendering methods to make them easier to read). Click and drag the map to view the adjacent area dynamically - there's no wait for a new image to download.

Shall we try that?
Wow! It works! Still!

I looked for old screenshots of what their product looked like back in 2005 but was not very successful, so these images from old Map of the Week posts will have to do. Here is an image from 2006 from a post about urban food choices in West Philly. If you ignore the points, you can see how Google's Cartography has improved.
I really disliked the early look of Google Maps. The streets were so wide there was little room for any other detail. Also, the road hierarchy was a problem - too many important (yellow) roads makes them all less important. They have improved the look tremendously, changed to a more subtle and readable color scheme and added lots of nice detail-especially when you zoom in a bit more.
For a more zoomed out perspective, here is a map of Sioux City, Iowa from a 2007 blog post, compared with the current Google Map.
Even with a blurry and obscured 2007 image you can still see how the hierarchy of roads, level of detail and color scheme has improved.

There have been many other areas of improvement too such as better directions, points of interest with web links, bicycle and transit routes, street view and more detailed aerial photos (they still erroneously call it "Satellite View") including in some places the oblique (45 degree) view.
Or for something a little more interesting - Coit Tower, San Francisco. 
I also think maps can be useful and fun - how about a floor plan?
More cartographically exciting is the terrain view. In some places it's quite stunning! I will leave you with this image from the Italian Alps.