From a very early age, I have had an interest in maps.  As a child, I used to randomly select a volume of my family's World Book Encyclopedia, and browse through the pages until I came across an interesting map.  I liked virtually every map I found, the ones that showed topography, the ones that showed climactic features, the ones that showed historical boundary changes.  You name it, I liked them all.  Pretty nerdy, huh?

 Anyway, that interest in maps has continued into my adult years.  Eventually, that interest morphed into a new hobby, collecting antique maps.  My collection is not huge by any means, but it does include some interesting samples.  Below are some of the antique maps that I am most proud to own.

The above map hangs in my living room.  It is the first significant antique map that I owned.   It was printed in 1696, and depicts the Western Roman Empire as it existed around the time of Emperor Constantine (early 4th century).  One of my favorite features of this map are the items depicted in the Atlantic Ocean.  There are peculiar sea creatures, but even more interesting are the ships.  In a terrific exaample of historical anachronism, the ships look amazingly like those that would have been used in 17th century Europe, not 4th century Rome.  Here is a close-up:

Moving to the other side of my living room, you'll find this interesting map:

This map was printed in 1662 in Germany, and depicts the Holy Land.  It was originally part of a Bible, and you can still see the crease of the Bible's binding running down the middle of the map.  

Of all the maps I own, this is my favorite.  The colors have been preserved amazing well for something so old.  The German Gothic writing is truly beautiful, even if it is extremely difficult to read.  I also love the art work, which shows Jesus in the lower middle, and the four Evangelists in each corner (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  Of course, the most striking cartographic feature of this map is the fact that north is on the left, not on the top of the map.  Until the 18th century, the directional coordinates on maps were not standardized.  It is not at all unusual for north to be on one of the sides of older maps, and sometimes even at the bottom.

Not all of my maps are as old as the first two.  I have several intersting ones from the mid-19th century.

Above is a map of North America from 1840.  This map is truly an interesting snapshot of a pivotal era in American history.  As you can see from the borders, the Mexican War has not yet taken place.  California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and much of Colorado and New Mexico are still part of Mexico.  Texas is shown as an independent nation, and includes territory that is now part of New Mexico and Colorado.  (Those parts of the original Texas annexation were ceded away from Texas as part of the Compromise of 1850.)  Of course, this map was also printed before "Seward's Folly", when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia.  On this map, Alaska is called "Russian America".  The map also shows a great deal of uncertainty regarding the islands of Northern Canada.

Here are two more maps that make up a single pair, one of the Western Hemisphere, and one of the Eastern Hemisphere:

There is no date given for these maps, but they contain several clues that help us come up with a fairly accurate guess.  In the Western Hemisphere, the lower 48 states are shown with the same borders that they have today, which means the map was produced after the Gadsen Purchase, which stabilized the border with Mexico in  1853.  However, the map must have been made after 1867, because Alaska is no longer referred to as "Russian America".  It is now called the "Alaska Territory".  Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867.  

There are more clues to the age of the maps if we study the Eastern Hemisphere.  Let's take a close-up look at Europe:

It's a little difficult to make out, but if you look closely you can see that Greece is shown as independent from the Ottoman Empire.  However, it is a much smaller state than it is today.  On this map, Greece only includes Attica (the area around Athens) and the Peloponnese, the southern most peninsula of Greece.  Greece achieved its independence from the Ottomans in 1829, so the map must be newer than that.  Of course, we already knew that from looking at the Western Hemisphere.

Other clues can be found in the Balkans, though.  What eventually became Bulgaria and Serbia are still showing up here as part of the Ottoman Empire.   That means the map was made before those nations achieved independence in 1878.  There is one more vital clue, and that can be found in Central Europe.  Germany is showing up as a unified nation, and includes the Alsace-Lorraine region which Germany won from France in 1871.  Voila!  This map was produced between 1871 and 1878!  That's about as close as we can get to an accurate date for these maps.

There is one more interesting group of maps in my collection I'd like to share.

This is a world atlas from early 1947.  Of course, World War II ended just a short time before this atlas went to print.  In fact, peace treaties were not finalized, so when the atlas was published, there was a great deal of uncertainty about national boundaries in Europe and the Pacific.  Consequently, the publishers used the borders as they existed in 1938, shortly before the war broke out.  But the publishers knew those borders would likely change, so they included this coupon on the inside front cover:

The publishers did not want dissatisfied customers, so they included a certificate that enabled them to receive updated pages once the post-war boundaries were finalized.  And those borders would end up changing dramatically, as you can see from the atlas's map of Germany:

There are several striking features on this map, and it reflects the tense moments just before Germany attacked Poland, initiating a European war.  Germany, of course, still possesses East Prussia and Silesia, areas that are now part of Poland and Russia.  Germany also includes Austria, which is called "Ostmark", or "Eastern Frontier" on this map.  You may recall from history that Germany took possession of Austria with the Anschluss of 1938.  You can also see a dark gray area around part of the eastern fringe of central Germany.  That is the Sudetenland, the part of Czechoslavakia that was ceded to Germany as a result of the Munich accords, when Neville Chamberlain proclaimed he and Hitler had achieved "Peace in our time."

Moving to Asia, here is the depiction of Japan and China:

When this map was made, the war was already raging in China, with Japan in possession of some 20% or more of that nation.  However, in 1938 the Japanese occupation of China was not recognized in the West, so it is not reflected on this map.  What is noteworthy, though, is what is shown as part of Japan.  Japan is colored pink, and it includes Korea and Taiwan, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin Island (the northern most part of Japan on this map).  It was Japan's possession of Sakhalin Island that induced the USSR to declare war on Japan after the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  The USSR invaded Japanese Sakhalin on August 11, 1945, and today all of that island belongs to Russia.  

As you can see, I love maps.  I love their aesthetic beauty.  I love the snapshot in time that they provide.  If you've made it this far in my post, thank you for letting me share a little bit of that love with you.