A fascinating site to explore: Strange maps.
Culinary maps, maps as political cartoons, and an interesting map comparing the world’s GDP to our fifty states. It is interesting just what kind of information and ideas can be communicated through a map.
This is one of my favorite maps that I first saw while visiting Australia (from ODT Maps):
McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map
It is a map with attitude, an interesting story and a point about Eurocentrism. At the age of 12, Stuart McArthur of Melbourne, Australia drew a map for a geography assignment. Tired of all the world maps showing his beloved country at the bottom of the world, he decided to make a correction and a cartographical statement. His teacher demanded that he redo the map “correctly” or fail. Later, as an exchange student, he was teased about his nation’s geographical position in the world, so McArthur vowed to one day publish a map with Australia in its rightful place on top of the world. Six years later, he did so with this map which has now sold over 350,000 copies, not to mention the plethora of other upside-down maps it has inspired.
That’s my kind of kid.
[tags]geography, maps, education[/tags]
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Now that is being your own man, a free thinker, a self starter. Very clever…and I kept looking at that map before I read your piece and thinking it was reversed some how when you copied it over LOL
That is funny, Shawna. I had never thought about the fact that North being up is purely arbitrary before seeing that map. It just hadn’t occurred to me.
I bet your hubby loves this one! Do you have a copy hanging in your schoolroom?
Yes, he does love it, but no, we do not have one.
I should get one. Maybe rather than filing religious objections with the state of Nebraska, I should file cartographical objections.
Then they would know for sure I’m crazy.
Loved this! My husband will too. Veeerrry interesting post, thanks. Blessings, e-Mom
That’s wild. And fun! It actually took me a minute to find the U.S. on that map! Interesting
Thanks, eMom and JacciM! I thought it was fun, too. And that site amazes me…that is a lot of work to find and comment on all those maps. I think it would make an interesting study into something for an older student.
I haven’t figured out what, exactly, but it would be an interesting study.
This is wild… I haven’t seen that poster in twenty years. I used to have it hanging on the wall of my room in high school, and then in my college dorm room some 25 years ago. Now that I think about it, I’ll bet I still have it rolled up in my poster collection. My son would get a kick out of having it now. Thanks for the blast from the past!
My husband is flying to Australia for three weeks. He is leaving either Wednesday or Thursday. I can’t wait to show him this map!
That is great, Phil! My husband will be glad to know that! I wanted to get the map and now I’m not sure why I didn’t. Maybe because there were so many other things I wanted to do and get while I was in Melbourne?
Julie, I hope he has a great time! And maybe he can bring one back for you? They were everywhere while I was there. Maybe the novelty has worn off by now, but somehow I doubt it.
Brilliant! Turn a map upside down, publish it, and sell 350,000 of them. Barnum is right: “there’s a sucker born every minute”.
Fred, have you know sense of humor?
LOL, what a cool map! We love maps!
Welll… if it wasn’t for European centrism, I doubt the boy would even be IN Australia, unless he is aborigine.
Plus, aren’t maps the way they are (Artic on top, Antarctic on bottom) because that is how the Earth rotates around the Sun– Artic on top, Antarctic on bottom?
It’s great to be a free thinker. It’s dumb to be a free thinker without thinking something through. But then again, he’s only 12, and public schooled, to boot! ;);)
Grr I spelt Artic rong. It shood be ARCTIC.
LOL!
Mrs. Mecomber, that depends on your point of view. Which way is up once you leave the Earth? It is all a matter of perspective. We think of the arctic as up and as the earth going around the sun in this position, but is that because it really does or because that is the way it is generally depicted in a book?
But out in space, there isn’t really an “up.” It is just a matter of perspective.
And if he’d have listened to his teachers in public school, he never would have drawn this map. : )
And just in case anyone is curious, prior to the 16th century, maps tended to be drawn with the East on top…it is where we get the word “orientation” from (pointing to the East). North came into vogue with navigation, and sailors “orienting” themselves according to the North Star rather than the supposed location of Paradise.
There isn’t really an “up” outside of what we are used to seeing on a map. : )
What a neat map and accompanying biographical essay! Thanks for sharing!!
Hmm, interesting. Which way is up, which way is north. How would one determine this? Doesn’t the Bible make it clear what is considered north? (and south?) I think it does. Also, you can make the determination that the top of the earth is as it should be outside of one’s eurocentrism influence– by noting which way the earth rotates and upon which side of the earth the sun rises and sets. Doesn’t the earth rotate toward the east, whether you are in Canada or Australia? And doesn’t the compass point toward the magnetic north?
At any rate, I think there really is an established “north” for the earth. I think God talks about it in the Bible.
I always thought sailors “oriented” themselves according to the North Star because increased exploration opened up more knowledge of the earth’s surface… in Ps 48 and somewhere in Isaiah, it describes the location of heaven: the “sides of the north.” The Hebrews believed Jerusalem to be the center of the earth (after they conquered it in 1000 BC, of course).
Good discussion.
Yes, there is a clear North. That isn’t the question. It is whether there is a clear “up.” Why is North up?
But I think that shall be a post of its own.
FYI, re: the McArthur map. In about a month we will have 6×9″ postcards of the McArthur map, along with the text from the map (with “attitude”) printed on the back. Check out the south-up maps section of ODTmaps at:
http://odtmaps.com/south-up-world-maps.48.0.0.1.htm
Mrs Mecomber
You called me dumb for not thinking things through, which is more than a little ironic.
Think this through: You’re floating in outer space and you see the earth rotating around the sun, and the North Pole happens to be at the top. Then you tilt head over toe 180 degrees and twist back to look at the earth again. Now you see the South Pole at the top.
Or you could have started in this position and gone the other way. It doesn’t matter. You’re in space, and there is no top or bottom of space to get bearings.
North is north and South is south but they’re just human labels. The fact one of them ended up on top of historical maps is arbitrary. If the early explorers had started from the Southern hemisphere, they probably would have drawn their country at the top.
It’s because so many people like you haven’t thought this through that I created the map in the first place.
And God has nothing to do with it. What is the top of a tennis ball? Does God have a view on that too?
Thanks for your interest though.
Well, thank you for your visit. We actually had a follow up post just because of Mrs. Mecomber’s question. : )
If you interested, it is here:
http://principleddiscovery.com/2007/11/14/some-geographical-reasoning/
IM FINDING CARTOGRAPHY AUSTRALIA’S MAP UPSET.
SEND ME THE WEBSITE PLEASE!
FAUSTO