Cartophilia

My name is Dennis and I am a cartophile!  Don’t worry. It is not contagious. It is not a new religion. It is nothing that needs to be stopped at the border.  It simply means, I love maps!

I said simply, but there is nothing simple about a map. They come in all shapes and sizes. They come with all types of purposes. They come in all shades of all colors. Wars have been fought over maps and what is printed on them.  Maps are quite complex. But my favorite things about maps are the stories they tell.

I tried collecting maps at one time but it was just too diverse a subject and impossible, for me, to narrow down.  I can spend a rainy afternoon looking at a single map just as easily as spending it on a good book. If I am looking at a map I am imagining the people that live in those cities and towns. I imagine why  they settled where they did. I wonder why four million people live in Chicago while only a million live in Tucson.  Locally, I wonder why Allentown is so much larger than Bethlehem, even though Bethlehem is older. The questions are endless, especially if you have a good sense of curiosity.

I framed two of my favorite maps. One is a large map of Lake Superior. I learned to love Lake Superior when I had my travelling job in the ’90s.  Duluth, Minnesota was one of my favorite places to visit.  The map is beautiful and shows all of the cities and towns around the lake. It shows the lake depths and the location of shipwrecks. I know exactly where the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975, losing all 29 of it’s crew. Thank you Gordon Lightfoot for not letting their memory fade.

My most favorite map, also framed,  is of my beloved Slatington, Pennsylvania. It is the town in 1870 and it shows every single property owner.  I can recognize many of the names as the same names of prominent families today.  I know why Williams Street is named Williams Street.  It shows the slate quarries that are in town or close to town.  It shows who owned the islands in the Lehigh River! It is fascinating, to me, to see what parts of town have grown into streets  since 1870.

Feeling nostalgic today, obviously.  I started out talking about maps and ended up in Slatington, yet again. Ahhh.

Rain predicted for the weekend. If you have any old maps around, maybe get one out and make up some stories.  I have one close friend who won’t be looking at maps this weekend. She is, literally, afraid of them!