Private Journeys on Public Maps: A Look at Inscribed Road Maps

Authors

  • James R. Akerman Director, Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography The Newberry Library Chicago, IL

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14714/CP35.835

Keywords:

public maps, private maps, road maps

Abstract

The exchange of gestural and sketch maps remains one of the most
common uses of cartographic representation, despite the fact that
printed maps—and now, their digital and broadcast counterparts—are
all around us. Common sense supports this assertion, but precious little
historical scholarship has addressed the history or nature of ephemeral,
informal, or private cartography in modern print cultures. This paper
examines twentieth-century American road maps and mapping practices
that lie on the cusp between the manuscript and the printed, the
public and the private. These practices prompt a reconsideration of the
usefulness of these distinctions in the history of cartography and of the
traditional emphasis on the end-products of the cartographic process
over the use, both public and private, of maps.

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Published

2000-03-01

How to Cite

Akerman, J. R. (2000). Private Journeys on Public Maps: A Look at Inscribed Road Maps. Cartographic Perspectives, (35), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.14714/CP35.835

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