All posts filed under: Historical Maps

Historical Map: Liverpool Overhead Railway, c. 1935

September 19, 2013
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The Liverpool Overhead Railway operated from 1893 to 1956, and was a unique example of an American-style elevated railway in the United Kingdom. It was the world’s first electric elevated railway and the first to use automatic signalling and electric signal lights. Serving Liverpool’s then thriving docks, it quickly earned the affectionate nickname, “The Dockers’ Umbrella”, as the elevated structure sheltered dock workers from the rain as they moved from dock to dock. This attractive […]

Historical Map: Original 1967 Boston MBTA “Spider” Map with 1980s Additions

September 18, 2013
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What we have here is a 100-percent original 1967 Boston MBTA “spider map” as designed by Cambridge 7 Associates, but with some very unofficial later additions. The minor additions are the lengthening of two names on the Red Line to later versions – “Kendall” becomes “Kendall/MIT” and “Charles” is now “Charles/MGH”. No problems there. The real eye-opener is the addition of the Red Line extension past Harvard to Alewife. The sticker used has discoloured relative […]

Historical Map: Washington, DC Metro Map, 1981

September 17, 2013
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Enough of all this talk about the new DC Metro map; here’s another old one for you – and this one’s a bit of an oddity. An inspection of the southern leg of the Green Line shows that the terminus was then planned to be at Rosecroft, not Branch Avenue. The preceding station shown, St. Barnabas Road, was also never constructed The photos of the map were sent to me by Mark Greenwald, who says […]

Historical Map: Aerial View of the Puget Sound Area, Washington, c. 1940

September 17, 2013
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An old postcard showing a colorised aerial photo of Seattle and the Puget Sound. Points of interest and the ferry routes of the era (pre-Washington State Ferries, which only commenced service in 1951) have then been added to the image. It’s these ferry routes which allow us to date this charming postcard to somewhere between 1935 and 1942. The little Fletcher Bay to Brownsville ferry route (centre left on the photo) only operated between 1924 […]

Historical Map: Société des Transports en Commun de la Région Parisienne – Réseau Tramways Banlieue, 1921

September 13, 2013
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Transport in Paris these days is so inextricably linked to the image of the ubiquitous Metro, that it’s very easy to forget that it once had an extensive network of trams spreading far out into the suburbs. Fancy catching a tram from the Louvre to all the way to Versailles along the banks of the Seine? You could back in 1921, when this gorgeous map was produced. At this time, all the many competing tram and […]

Historical Map: Diagram of Tube Services, 7:00am, September 28, 1940

September 9, 2013
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Here’s a fantastic historical document – a tube map used by engineers in London to mark out the status of services on the Underground during World War II. By the look of it, this map was updated at least daily, if not even more often, as this date falls squarely within the Blitz – a period where London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights by the Luftwaffe. The map itself looks like a modified hand-drawn […]

Behind the Scenes: Evolution of the Chicago CTA Rail Map from 1996-2006 and Beyond

September 6, 2013
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This material was sent to me via email by Dennis McClendon, who runs Chicago CartoGraphics, a design firm in the Windy City that specialises in maps and information graphics. His email – which outlines his role in the development of the Chicago “L” map as used in the CTA system map brochure (the first link on this page) – is so fascinating that I’m basically reproducing it in its entirety below. In effect, Dennis is Transit […]

Historical Map: “Explore the Yorkshire Coast” Poster, c. 1950s

September 5, 2013
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Simply gorgeous mid-century poster designed for British Rail’s North Eastern Division by the prolific graphic artist, Reginald Lander (1913–1982). Yorkshire has never looked better, or so warm… look at all those people in bathing suits frolicking in the hot sun! The simplified map suits the angular design of the underlying painted scene perfectly, a real synthesis of design and art coming together as a cohesive whole. The section of line between Pickering and Whitby via […]

Historical Map: MBTA Keychain, c. 1978-1979

August 26, 2013
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Submitted by dinnerkettle, who says: Inherited this MBTA keychain from my aunt recently. There’s no exact date on it, but it was definitely made before the red line got extended past Harvard and before some other stops got renamed. Transit Maps says: What a great piece of transit map-related ephemera! The best I can date it is after 1980 (when Braintree opened; an arrow points to it at the bottom right of the map), but […]