A beautiful early example of a stylised transportation map, showing routes and departure times for steamer ferries along the Sognefjord in Norway (the third longest fjord in the world, apparently), way back in 1907. While the “crinkly bits” of the fjord itself and the locations of the ports of call are faithful to geography, the routes themselves are overlaid with little regard to reality. Instead, they travel smooth, easy to follow paths that make the route of each individual ship easy to follow. Days of service and times of departure are also clearly denoted at each stop along the way.

Our rating: A lovely model of simplicity and clarity, and also really quite beautiful. Four stars!

Source: BBB1945/Flickr