On December 20, we hosted From The Vault: LMEC Community — Best Maps of 2024.

If you’ve ever wondered which of our maps are the most popular with visitors and researchers, here’s your chance!

At the LMEC, we have over a quarter million maps in our collection and more than 14,000 digitized and available through our digital collection portal. We’ve run the numbers and in this From the Vault, we’re here to show you some of our most popular maps of the last year! There are some maps that remain ever popular, but there are certainly some maps that may surprise you. See if you can guess which was the most viewed!

Russian War Relief, Inc.; E. Means 38,000,000 escaped – 10,000,000 died [ca. 1940–1949]

Offering up a unique perspective, this speculative map uses a familiar view of the United States to help put the devastation of World War 2 in Russia into a more understandable context for Americans. American cities are given equivalent Russian counterparts and the statement at the bottom pleads for Americans to empathize with the amount of damage caused to the country and its people.

Created by the Russian War Relief, Incorporated and headquartered in New York City, this was an attempt to appeal to the American people to “help keep relief ships sailing” to Russia in their time of need.

William Phineas Upham, Map of Salem Village 1692 (1866)

This map depicts the village and town center of Salem as it was during the year of the infamous Witch Trials in 1692. Important sites are also highlighted including the “Witch House” and the court house where the witches were tried and found guilty. Though no convicted “witches” were burned at the stake in Salem, as often thought, more than 25 victims were killed because of the accusations. 

Joseph Husson, Jr., Map of a Woman’s Heart [1840–1860]

Illustrating the mysterious land of a woman’s heart, this map is a comical take on the different facets of love and relationships. Centered on the Ocean of Love, Ideal Isle is disconnected from the rest of the land but just a quick hop from Cape Hope. An arrow (maybe one of Cupid’s?) has pierced the Devotion region of the heart. We can also see the lands Curiosity, Pride, and Hatred and some interesting geographic features, like Mt. Fashion and the Rocks of Despair.

Justin Winsor, Boston old and new (1880)

Noted historian and librarian, Justin Winsor created this unique map by superimposing the outline of the original Shawmut Peninsula onto an 1880 map of Boston. It was used as the beginning piece for the first volume of his “Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts”, published in 1882. Though drawn without the assistance of computers or aerial photographs, it remains one of the most vivid diagrams of the radical transformation and enlargement of the Shawmut Peninsula area during the 19th century.

Currier & Ives, The true issue or “thats whats the matter” (1864)

A political cartoon issued shortly after the Democratic Party’s nomination of George Brinton McClellan as their Presidential nominee in the election of 1864. The cartoon depicts McClellan as the peace candidate. Crying “The Union must be preserved at all hazards!”, McClellan attempts to reconcile Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis who are fighting over a large map of the United States with a tear down the center.

Pulling at the Northern side of the map, Lincoln declares, “No peace without Abolition!” Grasping the Southern side of the map, Davis retorts, “No peace without Separation!!” This image, incorporating both caricature and map elements, depicts the significance of the Civil War in American history. The regional tensions of the 1840s and 1850s led to the secession of eleven southern states to form the Confederate States of America and four years of the bloodiest war in American history.

Paul Revere, A view of part of the town of Boston in New-England and Brittish [sic] ships of war landing their troops! 1768 (1870)

A well known engraver, this engraved print depicting British soldiers landing in Boston Harbor in 1768 was done by Paul Revere. The troops were sent to Boston after riots erupted following the passage of the Townshend Acts in London in 1767. A partial view of the city of Boston can be seen in the background with seven prominent church steeples and the cupola of Faneuil Hall.

A key printed beneath the print identifies Long Wharf, Hancock’s Wharf, North Battery, and eight of the warships. Additional text beneath the print describes the event in sarcastic terms. An image in the lower right corner of the print mockingly dedicates the print to the Earl of Hillsborough who ordered the British troops to Boston. The image also shows a Native American, a symbol of colonial America, with his foot on the neck of a British soldier.

Alexander Gleason, Gleason’s new standard map of the world : on the projection of J. S. Christopher, Modern College, Blackheath, England ; scientifically and practically correct ; as “it is." (1892)

The #1 most searched map in our collection during 2024 is Gleason’s infamous “Flat Earth Map”. Though disbelieved and disproven for hundreds of years, there was a resurgence of “Flat Earthers” in the late 19th century. This map was included in Gleason’s 1890 book “Is the Bible from Heaven? Is the Earth a Globe?” With its claims to show the earth “as it is,” “scientifically and practically correct,” Gleason’s map appealed to the language of cartographic authenticity in order to make a competing claim about the truth.

John Bartholomew, Bartholomew’s chart of the world on Mercator’s projection [1914?]

A colorful and intricate example of a world map, the cartographer uses the Mercator’s projection to decide on how to portray scale. Maps drawn to the Mercator’s projection became the standard for navigation in the 18th century. Though it makes some regions look larger or smaller in scale than they actually are, this format really grew to popularity because any straight line on the map represents an actual compass bearing. This focus on navigation can be seen in other places on the map, like potential seaweed hazards, the currents, and common ship routes all marked.

W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, The Seventh Ward of Philadelphia [1899]

By the end of the century, Philadelphia was home to 40,000 African Americans, comprising the largest population of any northern city. Drawing from the sociological studies by residents of Chicago’s Hull House, African American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois undertook a similar study in Philadelphia, focusing on Ward 7, the location of the city’s oldest Black neighborhood. In this community with roughly 9,700 residents, Du Bois and his associates conducted approximately 5,000 interviews. Their findings were published as The Philadelphia Negro (1899), which included this fold-out map with the location of every residence, church, and business owned by Black people. Today, Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward is a trendy middle-class and white neighborhood, but Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church still stands on the edge of this neighborhood. It remains the longest held Black property in the United States while also preserving Black religion, culture, and history.