Map Collecting
Hoard beautiful maps. Call it 'cartographic appreciation.'
Map collecting (cartophily) is the art of finding, studying, and hoarding maps, antique, modern, thematic, fictional, or just plain weird. Old maps show what people thought the world looked like (spoiler: often wrong). Modern maps reveal hidden data. It's visual history you can hang on your wall.
How to start
- 1Browse the David Rumsey Map Collection online, it's free and enormous.
- 2Pick a theme: your hometown through the decades, transit maps, or fantasy maps.
- 3Check thrift stores and used bookshops for old atlases. They're usually dirt cheap.
- 4Print a historical map of your neighborhood and compare it to Google Maps.
- 5Frame one map. That's it. You're a collector now.
What you'll need
- Internet connection for digital archivesEssentialFree
- Cheap picture framesNice to have~$10
- Magnifying glassNice to have~$8
Where to learn more
Plot twists
Ways to spice this up when the basics get boring.
- Collect only maps that got something hilariously wrong.
- Make a gallery wall of transit maps from cities you've never visited.
- Find the oldest map that includes your street or town.
- Collect fictional maps, Middle-earth, Westeros, Discworld, Hyrule.
Zero ongoing commitment. You can binge-browse digital archives for an hour or casually spot a cool map at a flea market. No schedule, no pressure.
Cartographers used to hide tiny fake towns ('paper towns') in their maps to catch plagiarists. At least one paper town, Agloe, New York, became real because people kept showing up.
Similar vibes
If this one didn't land, try one of these.