Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
A POINT OF VIEW: Issued by the Anti-Socialist Union of Great Britain in 1912, this piece of propa-
ganda is a clear example of the map as a political statement.
Other maps are imaginative in the very different sense of depicting places that are not real.
These range from maps of wholly imaginary places to maps showing planned or proposed
changes to real places that, for one reason or another, have never become reality. Somewhere
in between these two extremes lie maps of real places portrayed inaccurately. As cartograph-
ers in past centuries of ten had much more limited access to geographical information or
knowledge than we do today, it is not surprising that mistakes crept in. Some mapmakers used
their imaginations to fill what would otherwise have been blank spaces on their creations.
A more subtle aspect of imagination in cartography is the creative purpose or message in-
herent in a great many maps. Far from being made for general purposes, like the published
products of the Ordnance Survey and other ordinary topographical mapping, many maps have
been designed and made with the needs of advertising, propaganda, satire or simply enter-
tainment in mind.
Various different facets of imagination and creativity may, of course, be combined. For in-
stance, a satirical map may also depict an imaginary place, as in the map of 'Green Bag Land'
A royal scandal
or an advertisement may incorporate a map into a bold and clever design,
such as the poster
Cool as a cucumber
In this final chapter, we explore a selection of maps
that reflects these diverse aspects of the cartographic imagination.
