EIS 10: Cartography

Cartography is the scientific discipline (and artform) of making maps. With the advent of GPS and other computerized maps, it has mostly fallen by the wayside. But, it’s still important, and, back in the day, it used to be even more important and even more complicated.

Think about it: only since we’ve sent cameras and people into space (so, the 1960’s) have we actually known what the Earth looks like. Before that, we were pretty much just making educated guesses based on what we were able to see down here from the ground. As a result, the earliest maps were kind of meh. If you’re interested, you can learn all about the early history of cartography by watching this video:
But, as we got into the Age of Exploration (involving Columbus sailing to America and a bunch of other mariners doing a lot of other sailing), map-making became a big focus, and there were a lot of people whose sole jobs were to explore the world and create maps based on what they found. There were also other people who explored smaller areas and constantly improved or updated the maps based on their changing surroundings. It’s like what Google Maps cars do today, only the retro version with, like, pens and paper. So vintage. The discipline was so involved that these cartographers would often put trap streets or trap cities onto their maps. These trap streets are made-up streets that cartographers would put on their maps so that they would know if someone stole their work (if someone else’s map had the trap street on it, they would know that the person hadn’t actually been to the location to see that the street doesn’t exist). Point is, cartography has a long and fascinating history that should make you really grateful to have a near-perfect map of anywhere and everywhere in the world conveniently in your pocket.

So, cartography is really cool. To give you some appreciation for the art and science of it, you will be making a map of an area near you.

Materials

  • Pencils (preferably colored pencils, but you can also go back and color with something more permanent after you’ve finalized your sketch). I do not recommend pens, because you will probably have to erase a lot.
  • Blank printer paper or graph paper.
  • A ruler.
  • If you have them readily available, a protractor and/or compass might also be helpful.

Procedure

  1. Choose an area of which to make a map. This can be a neighborhood, a park near you, or any other location you choose. Your map should include at least 3 streets (or paths) and 10 landmarks (these can be anything--houses, stores, trees, stoplights, etc.), so pick your location with this in mind. Also be sure to pick a location that is safe to walk around.
  2. Walk around your chosen area. Get a feel for the layout and noteworthy landmarks. Then, sketch out a rough map of the area. Be sure that this includes at least 3 streets/paths and 10 landmarks. You do not have to include every landmark in your area as long as you have at least 10.
    1. Choosing which landmarks to put on your map and which to omit is part of the art of cartography. You want to have enough that people understand the general layout of the area and where the important things are, but not so many that your map is cluttered and confusing.
  3. Walk around a second time. This time, take measurements as you go and write them down. You can estimate this based on the number of steps you take: before you leave, measure how big of a step you have to take to move forward 1 foot (if this is uncomfortably short, you could also do 2 feet or a yard/meter - just remember how far each footstep is and do the appropriate math to get actual distances when you’re done). Then, count your footsteps as you walk your route, being sure to keep the distance of each footstep consistent with your measurement. Things that you should be measuring include:
    • The length of the roads/paths.
    • The distances between curves in the road/path.
    • The distances between landmarks.
  4. You may need to walk the route a few times to get all of these distances approximately correct. Be sure to stay safe as you walk your route, especially if there are cars around. Write down important measurements as you go!
  5. Now sit down to make your map.
    1. Update your original mental map based on your more recent walks: don’t worry about the distances just yet, but you may have a better idea of the general layout now that you’ve walked the same route a few times. For example, you may have put a tree on the wrong side of the road in your original map, but, now that you’ve walked the route a few times, you realize that it’s actually supposed to be on the other side. You may not need to make any changes.
    2. Now, make a scale based on your measurements. Choose whatever scale you like based on how big your paper is and how far you walked. For example, 1 inch on paper might be 10 feet or 100 feet in real life.
    3. Calculate the distances on your map based on the real-life distances and on your scale. For example, if street A is 350 feet long (based on how many steps I took) in real life and my scale is 1 inch to every 100 feet, then street A on my map would be 3.5 inches. 
      1. If you have never made a scale model before, this video will teach you what they are and how to do the math
      2. As you do your calculations, you may decide that the final map will be too small or too big based on your scale. It is okay to change the scale, just make sure you use the same scale for your entire map. For example, I could say “3.5 inches is too small for street A, so I’m going to make my scale 1 inch to every 50 feet, so now street A is 7 inches,” but I couldn’t say “3.5 inches is too small for street A, so I’ll change the scale for that so that it’s 7 inches, but 1.5 inches is fine for the distance between Tree 1 and Tree 2, so I’ll keep that scale the same”. 
    4. Update your map using these distances. Use a ruler to measure distances and make straight lines (if the roads/paths were straight). You may decide to make your final version on a new piece of paper so that it’s clear and easy to read. You may also decide to make a final version on the computer instead of on paper: just make sure you’re still able to accurately measure distances.
    5. Your final map should have color to help distinguish landmarks.
    6. You may decide to add a “trap street” or “trap landmark” to protect your work.

When you’re done, answer the accompanying questions. If you’re proud of your map, we want to see it! If you have an Instagram and the permission of your relevant responsible adult, share with us @eons_learning, #MapsEons. Remember that when you're on social media it is smart to redact any details that might give away too much information about where you live.