Event of interest - 130 of the world’s greatest maps

A cool event for those of you lucky enough to be near Chicago... Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, is part of The Festival of Maps Chicago. The Festival of Maps Chicago is a citywide celebration, made up of more than 30 cultural and scientific institutions, dedicated to exploring and understanding the discoveries and history of wayfinding across time, space, and cultures.
Details
The exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see more than 130 of the world’s greatest maps, including those from ancient Rome and ancient Babylon, cartographers Leonardo da Vinci and Mercator, as well as the great libraries of the world, including the Vatican Library and the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Visitors also will discover the oldest road map of Britain and another with the first boundaries of the new American nation. These famous maps will be juxtaposed with modern ones, including in-car navigation systems powered by NAVTEQ.
Maps: Finding Our Place in the World
November 2, 2007 — January 27, 2008
See more at http://www.fieldmuseum.org/maps/

Nick Schiller - the Rebel Cartographer making headlines again!

Nice to see Nickolas in the headlines once again as The Washington Post have now featured a cool article about the rebel cartographer. Imagine, because the dude doesn't use Google earth, but rather, he goes directly to the source and uses imagery obtained from the USGS he's considered a rebel... I guess that's the state of the industry now ever since the epicenter moved to San Jose/Mountainview. From the article... "Since Google Earth appeared a few years ago -- and countless office hours were wasted as people mouse-clicked to their own back yards ("Lookee, there's the deck!") -- the starting point of Schiller's creations has been familiar. But he doesn't use Google. He goes to the source, the bird's-eye rendering of America placed in the public domain by the U.S. Geological Survey." If your not familiar with Schiller's work you should be... he takes imagery, mirrors the images, replicates scenes and creates snowflakelike patchwork scenes that make you site back, look at the image (remember staring at those pictures to try and make them appear in 3D), and wonder what inspired him. See http://www.nikolasschiller.com/ - of note, his work got a kick-start when he mapped President Busch's inauguration (second) parade route. You can see the full article in the Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301854.html - see also our first post about Nikolas at -Photos from Schiller's North, South, East, Westminster cartographic excursion (phot credit www.nikolasschiller.com - Lady Liberty on a quilt of the Pearl River Delta - Images from USGS & NASA)

Photos from Schiller's North, South, East, Westminster cartographic excursion

Thanks to Nikolas Schiller for keeping me informed about the interesting cartographic excursion that he put on this week. Schiller informed me that he has made available for viewing some photos from North, South, East, Westminster - see here - this event looked way cool and I can only wish that I could have spent the evening walking around the park checking out the displays... the cold beer afterwards looked good too!