• David Lanegran’s Minnesota on the Map: A Historical Atlas “brings together for the first time stunning but rarely seen maps of Minnesota through five centuries”; the Rochester, Minnesota Post-Bulletin has more: “The maps include early city plans of Rochester, Red Wing, Preston, Wasioja and the lost town of Beaver in the Whitewater valley. There are state highway maps, early plat book maps, maps showing the growth of cities, picture maps designed to attract tourists, and maps of projects that never came to be.”
• Drawing Battle Lines: The Map Testimony of Custer’s Last Fight comprises 90 contemporary maps of the 1876 battle of Little Bighorn. More from the Associated Press; via GeoCarta.
• A rather turgid review of the second edition of The National Atlas of Sri Lanka.
• I was not aware of ESRI Press’s ESRI Map Book series, which I guess is published in conjunction with the ESRI International User Conference, until the ESRI Mapping Center blog announced volume 23 earlier this month: “The twenty-third volume of the ESRI Map Book showcases the innovative and inspiring accomplishments of GIS users around the world. … More than 100 full-color maps are featured from distinct industry categories such as cartography, environmental management, government, natural resources, planning and engineering, tourism, transportation, and utilities.”
• Coming in November: The KML Handbook; via Google Earth Blog.

• Buy Minnesota on the Map at Amazon.com
• Buy Drawing Battle Lines at Amazon.com
• Buy ESRI Map Book, Vol. 23 at Amazon.com
• Buy The KML Handbook at Amazon.com

For the latest developments in the case of César Gómez Rivero, who is facing charges related to the theft of maps from Spain’s National Library, see this July article from El Pais and this more recent article from the Uruguayan version of El Pais. If, that is, you read Spanish. Which I do not. Via MapHist.

Previously: Australia Returns Stolen Map to Spain; Of 19 Stolen Maps, 11 Have Been Recovered; Map Thief Surrenders; Some Maps Stolen from Spanish Library Recovered; Map Theft Updates; Spanish Map Theft Update; Maps Stolen from Spain’s National Library.

Mental Floss’s three controversial maps will be familiar to regular readers of The Map Room: Percy’s 38-state map of the U.S. (Rob even draws a new version of Pearcy’s map), the Mercator projection (in the context of the Peters projection movement), and the Chinese map purportedly proving the Menzies theory. Via Infonaut.

Map Hawk, a side project by Directions Media’s Joe Francica, is a blog that “will cover the use of maps, mapping technology and location-based information in the media”; topics so far include the U.S. elections, the recent Russia-Georgia crisis, and newspaper map design. Via All Points Blog, naturally.

A display of unusual gadgets and inventions at the British Library includes a wrist-based routefinder that used miniature scrolling maps to indicate your destination. The Daily Mail and Ananova (which have pictures) call it the 1920s-era equivalent of satellite-based navigation, but I don’t think that’s the right metaphor — I think it’s more like TripTiks in a wristwatch. Via MapHist (thanks, Tony).

The genetic map of Europe, which shows the genetic relationships between various European populations and which was published in Current Biology, “bears a clear structural similarity to the geographic map,” the New York Times’s Nicholas Wade writes. “The major genetic differences are between populations of the north and south (the vertical axis of the map shows north-south differences, the horizontal axis those of east-west). The area assigned to each population reflects the amount of genetic variation in it.” Finland is quite divergent, as is, to a lesser extent, southern Italy. Thanks to Richard for the link.

Google is denying reports that detailed maps for Georgia and the other countries of the Caucasus on Google Maps disappeared as a result of the conflict between Georgia and Russia. The data was never there in the first place; they were simply three of several countries for which detailed maps are not available via Google. Google says that

we never launched coverage in those countries because we simply weren’t satisfied with the map data we had available. We’re constantly searching for the best map data we can find, and sometimes will delay launching coverage in a country if we think we can get more comprehensive data.

However, they’re changing that position:

We’re hearing from our users that they would rather see even very basic coverage of a country than see nothing at all. That certainly makes sense, and so we have started preparing data for the handful of countries that are still blank on Google Maps. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as other significant regions of the world will benefit from this effort.

It’s not just the Caucasus — Argentina and South Korea are still largely blank.

When we last heard about cartographer David Imus, he was getting rave reviews for his map of Alaska. Now the revised edition of his map of Oregon is getting similarly favourable reviews, at least if this article in today’s Eugene Register-Guard is any indication. The article goes behind the scenes and looks at how Imus puts his maps together. To say that Imus is exacting would be a gross understatement. Interesting.

Previously: The Best Map of Alaska?

Oops. Google News illustrates a wire story about the Russian invasion of Georgia — the one in the Caucasus — with a map whose pushpin is in Georgia, the U.S. state. Hilarity ensues. Those pesky automatic algorithms.

Two very different ways of making your own topo maps are explained in the following guides: Kevin Kelly talks about how to download free digital versions of USGS topo maps and print them (via Kottke); GPSFileDepot’s tutorial on how to download mapping data and generate topo maps that can be read by a Garmin GPS unit is somewhat more advanced, to say the least (via Free Geography Tools).

Nausicaa Delmotte has maps of the world’s astronomical observatories: plotted on Google Maps or in KML or plotted on a static world map. Via La Cartoteca.

You may be aware that, in addition to The Map Room, I have another project that I work on during the Olympics: DFL, which chronicles last-place finishes. I’m at it again — this is my third kick at the Olympic can — and I expect it will take up the bulk of my time over the next two weeks. I’ll try to keep up with posting here, but I suspect things will be sporadic (again) until the Olympics are done.

Meanwhile, here are some maps of the Beijing Games.

• The New York Times’s wonderful interactive cartogram shows the number of medals won by each country at each Olympics. Via La Cartoteca.
• Google has published fresh aerial imagery of Beijing and other Olympic venues (which, Stefan notes, the Chinese themselves cannot see, since the Chinese version of Google Maps does not include imagery).
• Google has also announced an embeddable, searchable Summer Games map and three-dimensional models of the Olympic venues. (See also Google Earth Blog.)
• The official Beijing Games site has a map of Beijing with lots of GIS layers. Via Catholicgauze.

Previously: BBC Olympics Map; Mapping the Winter Olympics.

Concerns are being expressed that the British Home Office’s recently announced plan to provide online crime maps for every neighbourhood in England and Wales would have a detrimental impact on housing prices and school enrolment in neighbourhoods with high crime rates; see articles in the Times and the Daily Mail for details.

It’s interesting to compare the reaction: there have been crime maps in the U.S., and I can’t recall a discussion of the downside of having this information available; rather, I suspect that people would prefer having this information available before they move.

The plan is based on a West Midlands pilot project.

Via All Points Blog and Infonaut.

Belgrade Is the World. Webmapper explains: “The artist Slaviša Savić discovered an unusual and an unexpected coincidence between the town plan of Serbian Belgrade and the map of the world. … The world’s continents seem to match the cities populated areas. Just as the Atlantic Ocean separates the Old and New World, the river Sava separates the Old en New Belgrade. Just like Greenland is situated in the confluence of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, the island Veliko Ratno ostrvo lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.”

We’ve seen this scale model of Shanghai before, but Neatorama provides some more information: “On the third floor of the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, there is what probably is the world’s largest scale model of a city. The room-sized model of central Shanghai in 2020, as envisioned by the urban planners, fills an area larger than 100 square meters (1,000 square feet).” Photo by Taj Campbell. Via Gizmodo.

Previously: Scale Models of Cities.

Those interested in geotagging may well be interested in Nikon’s newly announced P6000, a $500, 13.5-megapixel compact digital camera with a built-in GPS for automatic geotagging. As a Nikon fanboy I’m intrigued; as a digital SLR user I’m jealous. Digital Photography Review, Gizmodo.

A profile of map collector Clarence Kylander — it seems that a lot of map collectors are doctors or retired doctors; I wonder why that is.

A guide to geocaching with kids — self-explanatory, really. Via Matt.

The Tampa Bay History Center opens in December; over the next few years, maps from a private collection of some 2,000 maps of Florida, collected over 25 years by investment firm president J. Thomas Touchton, will be transferred to the Center’s holdings. Last March, the Tampa Tribune ran a piece on Touchton and his maps, the earliest of which dates to 1513. Thanks to Reid for the link.

Maps: From Here to There and Then to Now is a map exhibition, running from August 10 to November 30, at the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville, Arkansas. The Searcy, Arkansas Daily Citizen has more:

Of special interest is an exhibition of Carter Yeatman’s Historic Arkansas map collection, which spans the years from 1821 through the 1860s and one dating circa 1920. Each map illustrates the beauty of early cartography and also shows how the boundaries of the state and its counties changed during those decades. …

Other displays include a geological map that shows the rocks and mineral strata and the Fayetteville Shale that is presently being drilled for gas, a Civil War map that shows company movements near Cord-Charlotte and a cemetery relocation map that details how cemeteries were moved before Greer’s Ferry Lake covered them. A tactile map of Batesville that can be used by a blind person is also displayed.

Durham University’s International Boundaries Research Unit has produced a map of the frequently overlapping boundaries, jurisdictions and claims of various countries in the Arctic. In the wake of Russia’s planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole, in preparation for a claim that their continental shelf includes the Pole, it’s expected that the question of who controls what up there will be increasingly urgent. The PDF map “identifies known claims and agreed boundaries, plus potential areas that might be claimed in the future.” Canada’s claim to the entire Arctic Ocean up to the North Pole east of 141° W is mentioned in the notes but not depicted, for example; what we mainly see is territorial waters, exclusive economic zones, and claimed continental shelves. Thanks to Marc for the link.

Update: Reuters article.

Tools for Adventure is a travelling exhibition about maps, targeted at children from grades three through five, produced by the National Geographic Society and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. It’s currently at Baylor’s Mayborn Museum Complex (in Waco, Texas) through September 7; it then moves on to the Macon, Georgia Museum of Arts and Sciences, from September 27 to January 11. Via Contours.

Both Google Maps and Yahoo Maps got refreshed last week: Google’s interface was rejigged to reduce clutter (oddly, I get the old interface when I load maps.google.com, but the new interface when I load maps.google.ca — localization bug?); Yahoo’s interface changes are less obvious but more substantive, and focus on printable maps, driving directions, and local search.

On a minor note, Google’s driving directions now include the option to avoid toll roads.

An electrician has been given a suspended sentence for stealing approximately £89,000 worth of maps, books and documents from Birmingham University’s library, the Birmingham Post reports. Richard Delaney, 37, was caught after failing to return a van that had been issued by his employer; use of the employer’s fuel card led to his arrest in February. It was while working for that employer that Delaney had access to the Library’s collections. Delaney was, the defence said, suffering from a heroin addiction at the time and was in financial trouble as a result. He pleaded guilty to two charges of theft and one of making a false representation, and was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for 18 months. Via MapHist.

See also this report in the Birmingham Mail from last April (via Tony Campbell’s News About Map Thefts).

Considerable buzz about an upcoming BBC series, Britain from Above. This preview (screen capture above; I wish I could have embedded the video here, it’s pretty good) uses GPS traceroutes to show sea, road and air traffic; it also shows telephone network usage (thanks, Neil). The first episode airs Sunday on BBC One and Two. Via MAKE: Blog.

Update: A brief note in the Telegraph (via Mapperz).