A Treasure of Maps
Filed Under graphic design, international travel, retrotravels.net
A treasure of maps was recently “dug up” in my parent’s storage space and returned to me. Around 1994, when I moved away from home to attend college, I was forced to get rid of most of my National Geographic Magazines – a nearly-complete collection of every issue back to 1929. However, I was able to keep all of the supplements/inserts since they didn’t take up much room. I’ve been looking through the three boxes and have found more than just maps, folded posters, and old panoramic photos. I’ve also found one of the reasons why I love travel. I think most people would start to feel a desire to explore the world after looking at a few maps. The beautiful and distinct fonts, the colors, the clarity. A National Geographic map is good enough to hang up on the wall and call it “art.” In fact, President Roosevelt used National Geographic maps in the White House Map Room during World War II. Today, a case of world maps presented by the National Geographic Society still resides in the Map Room.
Below you will find a small selection of the hundreds of maps from my collection showing “snap shots” of the quality work National Geographic has produced in their world-famous cartographic department. If it takes a while to load or you’d like to view them in a flickr slideshow (800 x 800p res) by clicking here.
Have the urge to share a story about your National Geographic magazines or maps? Share it in the comments!

Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos & Eastern Thailand (1965)

South Central United States (1961)

Classical Lands of The Mediterranean (1949)

The Southeastern United States (1947)

The United States of America (1946)

The Northeastern United States (1945)

The Theater of War in the Pacific Ocean (1942)

The White Mountains of New Hampshire (1937)
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Comments
Would it disturb you too much to tell you that I cut up some National Geographic maps to help myself learn how to coptic bind books? I’m still getting the hang of it, but I liked how the end result turned out.
Nooooooo! Actually, as long as it wasn’t more than 40-50 years old, cutting up a National Geographic would be just as detrimental as cutting up a newspaper from the same time. In 1958, NatGeo was pumping out 2 million copies a month and the numbers kept climbing every year. Now, over 9 million are sold on stands in over 30 countries and 50 million subscribers find the yellow-bordered mag in their mailbox every month.
If you decided to test your book-binding skills on a map of Massachusetts from the first issue in October, 1888, then yes, I would be very disturbed.
You going to post your newly-founded bookbinding skillz on flickr?
I’m working on showing off my book binding skills via flickr.
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what a great collection of old maps. I was a map collector when I was younger and would have loved to own this collection. Well done and keep up the good work.
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This is a real antique treasure, do this kind of collections have high market value? Is this for sale?
I can understand how it would be get rid of the National Geo Mags, I also collected these magazines from the days when there was NAT GEO channel too, I lost them sometime back and just got so depressed..
Thanks for your post, the images were useful to me for my college project..
I should say you have some very good old resources which may not be found so easily.. in your place I would keep them handy..
You wont believe this my wife used the NatGeo mags for bonfire.. I could not believe this but could not help it too.. how can somebody to do this..
It would be really nice to have such old maps..
Thats a very good collection..
What an amazing collection of maps – makes me want to travel just looking at them.
What a site it is!! Excellent design..the clarity of maps are too good..Nice post..
hey this is an awesoe colleciton dude.. wowww… very eager to see this!!!
Great post, really help me alot. Thanks.
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Great post, really help me alot. Thanks.
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[...] a teen, along with collecting stamps, baseball cards, and comic books, I had a proud collection of National Geographic Magazines and their maps. With a magnifying glass and a heap of imagination, I would explore every detail of a map. When [...]
[...] for me. I’ve been collecting maps for most of my life. (You can read about my collections here & here.) The episode about maps reminded me that I own a piece of Yosemite map history myself. [...]
Hello, its such a wonderful map list i have ever seen.But i think if you like to travel in these pictures then you must have good travel insurance with you.
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This is cool! And so interested! Are u have more posts like this? Plese tell me, thanks
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