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Archive: April 2018 (3 Posts)

Die Isoterhmkurven Der Nordlichen Halbkugel in Physikalischer Atlas. Heinrich Berghaus, 1845. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

The First Isothermic World Maps

Posted by: Mike Klein

Called the “father of temperature mapping,” the renowned German naturalist and climatologist, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) devised the concept of the isotherm, which he described in 1816 as a “curve drawn through points on a globe which receive an equal quantity of heat.” Humboldt’s initial diagram map of average temperatures appeared in 1817 in an …

Karachi Tramways (Kurrachee) Province of Scinde, India, no date. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

From Minor Village to World Metropolis: Karachi in Maps

Posted by: Ryan Moore

The former capital of Pakistan, Karachi is the most populous city in the country and the third most populous in the world. Before it was Karachi, the place was called Kolachi, a small village on the Arabian Sea. Kolachi was the surname of the founding fisher-woman, Lady Kolachi, according to local lore. The transformation from …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

An Atlas of Geographical Fun

Posted by: Julie Stoner

While many of the over six million maps in the Geography and Map Division are of a serious nature, there are also those meant to amuse the viewer. There is one such atlas in the collection titled Geographical fun : being humourous outlines of various countries, with an introduction and descriptive lines. Published in 1868, …