Category Archives: Historical
Life: The Boston Number
Ah, the satirical map. The other day we ran across this delightful 1911 map illustration by Paul Goold on the cover of Life magazine. A child, simultaneously having a healthy glow but looking rather sickly, and clearly being what we … Continue reading
Happy birthday, Red Line
Do you live, work, or ever travel in the area between Harvard Square and Park Street? If so, you know a piece of the MBTA Red Line that celebrates its 100th birthday today! Yes, what is now the Red Line … Continue reading
Where to Buy Valentines in the 1800s
Your work day is done and you are getting ready to hop into your time machine to buy your sweetheart a valentine from 1800s Boston? Well, then we have just the thing for you! Courtesy of the Tufts Boston Streets … Continue reading
Thirteen neighborhoods: one city
If there’s one thing everybody knows about neighborhood boundaries in Boston, it’s that nobody knows where they are. But they’ll tell you you’re wrong if you try to draw lines. That’s fair enough, really—any line drawn will divide neighbor from … Continue reading
A new BPL home for the Leventhal Map Center
In case you missed it, this past weekend was the grand opening of a beautiful new public space for the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center in the Boston Public Library at Copley Square. You probably already know the Map Center, … Continue reading
Cantabrigian Namesakes
In spite of the borderline comical duplication of street names in the Boston area (often within the city of Boston itself), the streets around here are named for many people, places, and things. They are names we encounter every day … Continue reading
Map Pinning Boston
Bostonography provides us with the perfect forum for sharing bizarre, hybrid posts that randomly incorporate some of our favorite things. There is no doubt that soon enough, I will write something up on gummi candy maps of Roxbury… even if … Continue reading
Posted in General, Historical, Unusual Medium
Tagged Boston, history of cartography, map pins, map tacks, pushpins, rand mcnally
2 Comments
Conquering eagles and geese
I don’t want to take this site too far down the road of posting historical items that are interesting merely for being historical, but it’s worth mentioning a first that Boston can claim. In 1860, from a balloon tethered on … Continue reading
(Cartographic) Greetings from Boston
Ah, postcards. The travel microblogs of yore. For decades they were the preferred (if not only) method for sending updates and short messages from near and far to friends and family. If you ever find yourself bored in an antique … Continue reading
Posted in General, Geography, Historical, Transportation
Tagged Boston, maps, massachusetts, myth, postcards
15 Comments
A Bostonian’s Idea of the United States of America
It’s hard to argue that humility is one of Bostonians’ virtues. Hub of the entire freaking universe? Yikes. No more humble, of course, is the object of our inferiority complex, New York. With massive pride comes a (geographically, at least) … Continue reading