advertising – The Map Room

P. J. Mode Interviewed

Published on 20 September 201919 September 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

James Gillray, “The Plumb-Pudding in Danger,” 1805. Print, 26 × 36 cm. P. J. Mode Collection, Cornell University Library.

JSTOR Daily interviews P. J. Mode, the map collector (and donor) behind Cornell University Library’s P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography. Mode began collecting maps in 1980, and proceeded in the usual manner until stumbling across what would become his niche.

When I was looking at those maps in dealers’ shops or catalogs, I often saw other maps that I thought were fun and interesting. I didn’t quite understand them all—unusual maps, strange maps of different kinds. The kind of maps that dealers refer to as “cartographic curiosities” (which basically means, “This doesn’t fit into one of my pigeon-holes…”). These were kind of fun and interesting, and they were inexpensive so, on a lark, I would buy them when I saw them and then I would kind of try to figure out what they were.

[AGS]

Previously: Persuasive Cartography; Another Look at Persuasive Cartography; Persuasive Cartography Collection Expands.

A Huge Collection of Maps in Advertising

Published on 9 May 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

Tim Wallace has amassed a ridiculous collection of map-themed advertisements from the pages of Fortune magazine. Hundreds of them, running in chronological order from the 1930s to the 1960s (when he ran out of steam). On a single web page. (It will probably never finish loading in your browser.)

Mapping What Local Campaign Ads Focus On

Published on 2 November 20186 November 2018 by Jonathan Crowe

Bloomberg maps what political ads are talking about in 210 local television markets, and finds some intriguing patterns in terms of what each party chooses to focus on in each local market. [Nathaniel Rakich]

Persuasive Cartography Collection Expands

Published on 25 April 2017 by Jonathan Crowe

“The Silver Dog With the Golden Tail,” 1896. Map, 20×26 cm. P. J. Mode Collection, Cornell University Library.

More than 500 maps have just been added to the P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography at the Cornell University Library. That’s almost double the number they began with. Via email, P. J. Mode also says that “Cornell has implemented a much-improved image browser with a very robust search function. I hope there are some things that you’ll find new and interesting!”

Previously: Persuasive Cartography; Another Look at Persuasive Cartography.

Another Look at Persuasive Cartography

Published on 10 August 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Frederick W. Rose, “Angling in Troubled Waters,” 1899. P. J. Mode Collection, Cornell University Library.

Writing for Hyperallergic, Allison Myers explores Cornell University Library’s P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography, the collection of propagandistic maps I told you about last January.

Persuasive Cartography

Published on 18 January 201618 January 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Persuasive cartography: it’s a term I haven’t encountered before, though I’ve seen kind of maps it refers to: propagandistic art that uses cartography to make a point—think of all those caricature maps leading up to World War I. Many of them can be found in Cornell University Library’s P. J. Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography: there are more than 300 maps available online, plus some pages about the genre. (Above: a 1951 map from the French Communist Party that takes a pro-Soviet line against the U.S. military.) [via]