California As An Island

image The Philadelphia Print Shop has a great online collection of ancient maps that contain mythical geography. Mythical geography describes "geographic features that appear on the map but not on the earth; cities where none ever were, islands where there are but waves, lakes and rivers where there is dry land, and kingdoms of non-existent kings." (I have some more information about this topic in my Medieval Travel Lies Gallery). My favorite ancient maps in the Print Shop's collection are the ones of California as an island. Of course, it remains to be seen whether these were actually geographic myths, or astute predictions of the future. Being in San Diego, I'd love to be able to hang a map of California as an island in my living room, but since their prices range from $500 all the way up to $7000, that's not going to happen anytime soon. (via J-Walk)

History Places

Posted on Wed Aug 04, 2004


Comments

The maps are either legit, or good enough to fool the Library of Congress. See the URL.
Posted by JC  on  Wed Aug 04, 2004  at  03:24 PM
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g3291s+mf000074))

Sorry for not posting the link in my comments.
Posted by JC  on  Wed Aug 04, 2004  at  03:27 PM
Cool. :coolsmile:
Posted by Shah  on  Wed Aug 04, 2004  at  10:56 PM
I've got one showing CA as an island -- keep an eye out in college poster shops, or see if Allposters.com happens to have it.
Posted by cvirtue  on  Sun Aug 08, 2004  at  07:41 PM
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