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They Don't Make Maps Like this Anymore

Cartography nerds, get excited.
By 

Photo Fellow, The Huffington Post

Leo Belgicus, Hondius, Jodocus, 1563-1612.

Since the human invention of territorial borders there has been a fascination with maps. Maps have defined the way we understand the world, outlining the geographical -- and often political -- delineations of humanity.

"Worlds Revealed," a new Library of Congress blog created in November, will feature some of the more vintage maps from the LoC archive. The maps, dating back as early as the 1500s, show a time when cartographers used their own artistic stroke to illustrate the world, including cities, railroads, national parks -- even the cosmos.

"With this blog, we invite you to broaden your conception of what a map is," the Library of Congress notes on its site. "We will highlight cartographic objects from our collections that sometimes go beyond what usually ends up in exhibits and in textbooks and bring to the forefront uncataloged objects that have never before been placed online."

Take a peek into the maps of "Worlds Revealed" below.

Bechler
Map of Lenawee County, Michigan, 1857.
Tianjin/ Library of Congress
Map of Peking, 1914.
Pascoal Roiz/Library of Congress
A portolan chart of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent continents, 1633.
Joan Oliva/Library of Congress
Portolan atlas of the Mediterranean Sea, 1590.
Sebastian Münster/Library of Congress
New weldt oder Inseln, so hinder Hispanien gegen Orient bey dem land India ligen, 1550.
Arthur William Hummel/Library of Congress
The great Qing Dynasty's complete map of all under heaven, 1890.
Library of Congress
Central America, 1850.
Eckebrecht, Philipp Eckebrecht, Johannes Kepler, Johann Philipp Walch/Library of Congress
The delineation of the south of the world , adapted to a singular manner, 1630.
William Hole, John Smith/Library of Congress
Virginia, 1624.
W Godson/Library of Congress
A new and correct map of the world : laid down according to the newest observations, 1702.
Mateus Prunes/Library of Congress
Chart of the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and the coasts of western Europe and northwest Africa, 1559.
Jodocus, Hondius, Hugues Picart, Jean Boisseau/Library of Congress
Africa Board, 1640.
Library of Congress
Portolan chart of the Pacific coast from Mexico to northern Chile, 1500.
Yuanyi Mao/Library of Congress
Wu bei zhi, 1644.
Leo Belgicus, Hondius, Jodocus, 1563-1612.
Jodocus Hondius/Library of Congress

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