Map Myths

@mapmyths.com

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Map Myths delves into the stories and people behind the phantom geography found on maps - by @rhewlif.xyz Myth map 👉 https://mapmyths.com Long reads 👉 https://mapmyths.com/blog

Robert Peary based his mapping of the area on observations he made in 1892 from Navy Cliff, located north of the Academy Glacier. Source: Northward over the "great ice", 1898

Märket Lighthouse, Finland. Source: Wikimedia

Märket on the border between Finland and Sweden
Karta öfver Åland (Nordisk familjebok, 1922). Source: Projekt Runeberg

Hidden images in national swisstopo maps

East Africa, with Prester John. The Queen Mary Atlas (Diogo Homem, c.1559). Source: British Library

The Fra Mauro world map (1459).
'Here is the principal residence of Prester John'
Source: https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/interactive-exploration/explore.html

'Alaschka' as an island. Map: Planisphere suivant la projection de Mercator (Rigobert Bonne, 1780). Source: Yale University

Of the ten surviving copies of the Tabula Rogeriana, six contain at the start of the work a circular map of the world, which is not mentioned in the text of al-Idris. Source: Bodleian Library

Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154. Modern consolidation, created from al-Idrisi's 70 double-page spreads.Source: BNF

Map: South Pacific Ocean (John Bartholomew, 1922). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Mare del Sud detto alurimenti Mare Pacifico (Vincenzo Coronelli, 1693). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Americae Sive Novi Orbis, Nova Descriptio (Abraham Ortelius, 1570). Source: University of Washington.

NASA astronaut image of Puka Puka Atoll (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) in the Pacific Ocean

Island in the Weddell Sea not yet recorded on nautical charts (Photo: Alfred Wegener Institute / Simon Dreutter)

Map: Mar di Aethiopia vulgo Oceanus Aethiopicus (Johannes Jansson, 1650). Source: David Rumsey

Portrait of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

This river is called Paranaguazu in the language of the Indians, and commonly Parana. It has its entrance and mouth on the South Sea from 35 degrees to 36 degrees high, between the capes of Santa Maria and Cabo Blanco, which from there another ten leagues wide, with many islands in between, and many very large and volumunious rivers that enter it from the east and west, up to the port of Los Reyes, which is a large lagoon called Los Xarayes, a little less than 300 leagues from the Rio de la Plata...

Source: Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra firme del Mar Oceano

Map: Bartolomeu Velho, 1561. Source: Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza

Passage through the ice, June 16 1818

Lancaster Sound, as seen from H.M.S. Isabella at 3P.M. August 31st 1818 (John Ross, 1819)

A General Chart Shewing the Track and Discoveries of H.M. Ships Isabella & Alexander to Davis's Straits and Baffins Bay in an attempt to discover a passage into the Pacific Ocean (John Ross, 1819)

Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio by Gerard Mercator, second state

A voyage to the new island Fonseca, near Barbadoes. Source: NLA

QuakersEngelse Quakers en tabak planters in Barbados (Peter van der Aa, 1726). Source: NYPL

Portolan (Gaspar Viegas c. 1537). Source: Biblioteca Riccardiana

Providencia and its barrier reefs, as seen by Landsat 9. Source: NASA

Nimrod in Antarctica

Map: World, Mercator's projection (John Arrowsmith, 1835). Source: David Rumsey

Google Maps screenshot from the San Juan Islands in Washington.

Map: Atlas of the Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition : during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 (Charles Wilkes, 1844). Source: Library of Congress

Map: Nueva Hispania tabula nova (Girolamo Ruscelli, 1561). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Nueva Hispania tabula nova (Giacomo Gastaldi, 1548). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Pacific Ocean (Aaron Arrowsmith, 1819). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Reduced Chart of the Pacific Ocean (Aaron Arrowsmith, 1798). Source: David Rumsey

HMS Cornwallis. Source: British Library

"DISCOVERY. In lat. 16, 45, N. long. 169, 38 W. from London, on my passage from the Sandwich Islands to China, the 2d. of Sept. 1796, at midnight, in company with the sch. Prince William Henry, William Wake, master, of London, we both ran ashore on the North-side of a reef of Coral rocks and sand, where we continued until the next day noon─at which time the weather being very clear, we saw two small Islands of Sand, bearing W by N. 4 or 5 miles distant; and from our topgallant-mast-head, we saw the shoal extending E.S.E. southerly round to W.S.W.─but how far we were not able to determine. Keep the lat. 17. N. and the shoal will not be seen. JOSEPH PIERPONT."

Philadelphia Gazette, September 18 1797.

Map: Standard Map of The Pacific Ocean and Bordering Lands (Rand McNally, 1924). Source: David Rumsey

United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), Volume v.23 Hydrography (1861) p270. Source: archive.org.

WALKER’S ISLAND is laid down on our charts in latitude 4° north, and longitude 149° west. The authority for it was derived from a master of a whale-ship, whose name I regret not to be able to give, having omitted to note it down when it was reported to me. Krusenstern gives its position as latitude 3° 54’ north, and longitude 149° 25” west. The Porpoise passed to the eastward of the situation assigned it, but did not see it. I was in hopes of being able to verify its position or disprove its existence. Although I feel some doubts of its existence, and am still under the impression, that notwithstanding it lies many degrees removed from Fanning’s Isle, it may have been mistaken for it, I have retained it on the chart, from the authority above quoted. There is another island, laid down on some charts, between the above and Fanning’s Island, called Sarah Anne, in longitude 155° west. This I have omitted on our charts, believing there is no reliance to be placed in its existence. It is desirable that Walker’s Island should be sighted, to ascertain its position correctly. The accounts represent it as a lagoon island, with many small islets on its rim.

Map: Hemisphaeren (Christ. Gottfr. Dan. Stein, 1865). Source: David Rumsey

Map: Carte particuliere de la Polynesie, (partie de l'Oceanie). (Adrien Hubert Brue, 1827). Source: David Rumsey

Dr J J C Bradfield’s inland irrigation scheme. Source: Queensland Historical Atlas

Discovery of a white colony, on the northern shore of New Holland (The Hobart Town Courier, 25 July 1834)

Sketch map of Captain Sturt’s tracks & discoveries on his various expeditions into south eastern & central Australia (J. Arrowsmith, 1849). Source: archive.org

Captain Charles Sturt. Source: The Australian Museum

The expedition in a desert in Australia (Thomas Maslen, 1830). Source: State Library South Australia.

Purported position of Truls Island and the route of Norvegia during its search for the island. Source: Norwegian Explorations in the Antarctic, 1930-1931, by Gunnar Isachsen (1932).

“Changing look-outs 10pm Look-out is kept 175 feet aloft on the main mast.”. Source: livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/54914

Scene from Zemlya Sannikova showing the protagnoist, Ilyin (played by Vladislav Dvorzhetsky), holding a knife

Zemlya Sannikova first edition cover (1926). Source: goarctic.ru

Permafrost collapse (Drew Point, Alaska). Source: USGS

A.V. Kolchak in the wardroom of the Zarya. Source: Wikimedia

‘Zarya’ on its first wintering grounds off the coast of Taimyr. Source: Wikimedia

Portrait of Eduard von Toll, 1898. Source: nb.no

Map of the Eastern Part of Sibera (John Cochrane, 1825). Source: David Rumsey

Map showing the circumpolar area and the supposed open polar sea by Silas Bent. (1872). Source: NOAA

Scene from the film Zemlya Sannikova

Map: Americae nova tabula (Willem Jansz Blaeu, 1635). Source: BNF

Château de la Mothe, frontal view, from the garden, currently for sale. Source: chateaudelamothe.fr

Map: Nuova Francia (Giacomo Gastaldi, 1556). Source: McGill University