The shape of Portland's peninsula changed dramatically over the past two hundred years as its shoreline was repeatedly reconfigured by in-filling. These composite maps, created by Rosemary Mosher with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, ...
In addition to sparkling gas stations, happy traveling families, and majestic natural scenery, oil companies also portrayed the darker side of American history by including images of war. The military conflicts that most often appeared in cover art w...
By the late 1920’s over half of American families owned or had access to an automobile. With nearly 10 million cars on the road, thousands of gas stations began to dot the landscape. Attempting to make the gas station as more than merely as place t...
With the rising prosperity of the mid-twentieth century, the automobile became a staple for many American families. Responding to this shift, oil companies began marketing the American landscape as something an adventurous family should experience. R...
New England Regional ImageryNew England was one of the landscapes that road map art helped to popularize with the traveling family. The region was depicted as a welcoming place, attractive for both its rugged natural features and its quaint, rustic t...
How Geography was TaughtIn the nineteenth century, American schools, in contrast to current education practices, paid great attention to teaching geography. The USA was a new country and one commencing a period of great expansion. There was an impell...
These images of the installation of Envisioning the World in the Osher Map Library's exhibition gallery were created by Ron Levere, USM. The installation itself was by Stuart Hunter, working with Ms. Yolanda Theunissen and Prof. Matthew Edney....
Views of towns and cities may have been the most popular category of printed images in nineteenth century America. They have also been known as bird’s eye views, perspective maps and aero views. Although not drawn to scale, they show street pattern...
Mapping activities by the United States government were constrained by the strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution which prevailed before the Civil War. The division of responsibility between the Federal and state governments followed a simple...
The several wars fought by the United States during the mid- and late-nineteenth century attracted a great deal of popular cartographic attention. Much of the popular mapping associated with wars focused on the sites of conflict, as with the examples...
