Magnificent Maps: Cartography as Power, Propaganda, and Art | Brain Pickings
►http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/04/17/magnificent-maps-cartography-as-power-propaganda-and-art
Three of my great fascinations — cartography as art, propaganda design, and antique maps — converge in Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. The lavish tome collects cartographic curiosities from the golden age of display maps — the period between 1450 and 1800, when maps were as much a practical tool for navigation as they were works of art and affirmations of cultural hegemony or social status — culled from the formidable collection of the British Library.
Complementing Magnificent Maps is an interactive site from the British Library that lets you explore some of the maps with curatorial context.
►http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps
cc @reka