All posts filed under: Historical Maps

Historical Map: Map Showing Indianapolis as a Steam Railroad and Interurban Center, 1907

October 17, 2017
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Here’s an absolutely wonderful diagram of rail in Indianapolis in 1907 that pares everything down to the absolute minimum required to tell the story. 43 completely evenly-spaced railroad lines (representing 18 steam lines and 25 interurbans, according to the source) enter the city, which is encircled by the aptly named Belt Railroad. The names of those 43 outer destinations spiral dramatically around the edge of the map, though the flow is perhaps broken a bit […]

Historical Map: Rotterdam Transit Map, c. 1974 by Tel Design

October 16, 2017
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Here’s another fantastic old transit diagram taken from the pages of the 1974 Graphis Diagrams annual (see also this concept Helsinki Metro map). This minimalist diagram of Rotterdam’s transit was designed by the firm Tel Design, who were also responsible for the corporate identity of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS or Dutch Railways) in the 1960s. The creative director, Gert Dumbar, formed his own design studio in 1977 and continued to do work for NS through the […]

Historical Map: Concept for Helsinki Metro Diagram, c. 1974

September 27, 2017
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Here’s something interesting – an early concept diagram for the Helsinki Metro that shows two lines instead of the eventual one (plus branch). It appears in the 1974 edition of Graphis Diagrams, a collection of the best informational design from around the world at the time (generally within the last year).  Stylistically, it’s almost identical to the diagram that was actually used when the Metro finally opened in 1982… it just has a whole extra […]

Historical Map: Subway-Surface Lines, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1978

September 22, 2017
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Here’s a great late-1970s diagram that I haven’t seen before of Philadelphia’s subway-surface trolley lines. From the looks of things, this might well have been a strip map within the trolley cars themselves. The subway-surface lines are given full prominence here, with the rest of Philly’s rapid transit rail system represented by very thin route lines mainly confined to the right third of the map. The five trolley routes are treated very diagrammatically, each following […]

Historical Map: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) “Transit Map” Newspaper Ad, 1947

September 20, 2017
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Submitted by Jack, who says: This is an ad for British Overseas Airways Corporation in the old Australian newspaper The Bulletin, September 17, 1947. I found it while digitizing the paper at work! Transit Maps says: This is a glorious find, and one that @airlinemaps would certainly be very interested in. Compositionally, the diagram is very interesting, with a dead straight line linking Britain to the Antipodes (somewhat mitigating the fact that the line represents […]

Historical Map: Newcastle Inns “Metro Map” Ad, 1982

September 3, 2017
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This newspaper ad from 1982 predates all those trendy “coffee shops/restaurants/bars/etc. nearest every subway/metro/train station in [insert city]” graphics that are pretty much everywhere these days by some 35 years. Riffing off the the Tyne & Wear Metro Map of the day, the map shows all the Newcastle Inns’ pubs near stations with their star logo, while also featuring some truly dreadful advertising copy puns. Source: SkyscraperCity forums

Historical Map: Test MBTA Rapid Transit Map, 1991

August 24, 2017
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An unused test diagram for Boston’s rapid transit network from 1991. It attempts to name every station on the branches of the Green Line, but with the unfortunate side effect of completely dominating the design. The poor old Blue Line gets shoved into the top right, and the northern part of the Orange Line doesn’t fare much better. In short, the whole thing is hideously unbalanced, and I’m very glad that this concept didn’t advance […]

Historical Map: CAAC Airways Service Diagram, China, 1957

August 23, 2017
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Here’s one for @airlinemaps: a wonderful infographic/diagram mashup from the 1950s that packs in heaps of information, right down to the type of airplane used on each route (denoted by the colour of each line). Flight numbers, time of departure/arrival, days of service, through routing of flights… it’s all incorporated into the one graphic. And it’s trilingual as well! Compare with this very similar diagram of Polish Airlines LOT routes from 1939 (June 2015, 5 […]

Historical Map: A Progress Report on the Interstate Highway System, 1961

July 27, 2017
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A great old map on a subject matter very dear to my heart – the Interstate Highway System. Produced in 1961 by the Caterpillar Tractor Company, who stood to gain a great deal in the construction work required to complete the network, it shows the proposed completed network in white, sections under construction with blue dashes, and – somewhat counter-intuitively – sections that are open to traffic in red. It’s immediately apparent how little of […]

Historical Map: Nuclear Weapons Complex Transportation Routes, 1988

July 27, 2017
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Here’s an unusual use of transit map design principles – a map produced by the Radioactive Waste Campaign in 1988 of the routes used to transport nuclear materials and waste around the United States. This diagrammatic approach actually works very well here – as the legend to the map says: The origin and destination of these routes are well known. However, because of government secrecy, the exact path of these routes is conjectured. Without the […]