Gallery: A Pooping Britain, a Russian Octopus, and Other Weird Maps
The British Library Board01Pg-101 Kitchin World Jigsaw
This jigsaw puzzle map from 1787 is missing three pieces: central Europe, Madagascar, and the northern Great Lakes. Though the name on the map is Thomas Kitchin—the hydrographer to the King of England at the time—the map is more likely a pure product of John Wallis, who declared himself “the original Manufacturer of Dissected Maps and Puzzles, (having devoted full 30 years to that particular line of business).”
The British Library Board02C. 29. b. 9, board
This game map published by Londoner Edward Wallis in 1844 came with some fabulously descriptive instructions for players to follow as they moved across the numbered spaces on the board. “Mind how you wash your hands in the pools, lest you touch a Gymnotus, or Electrical Eel, which would give you a shock you would not easily forget. Now, my friends, are you all prepared for the bush?”
The British Library Board03G.46
This inventive expandable globe works like an umbrella: It has a central metal strut surrounded by several metal spokes, and when the user compresses them upward, they curve outwards to form the globe’s shape.
The British Library Board04Maps X. 6168
Created in 1854, this famous caricature map depicts the Crimean War. Each country involved in the war becomes a different animal: Britain as a lion standing sentry, France as an imperial eagle, Turkey as…a turkey, and their foe Russia as a despotic bear, seemingly prepared to whip Poland into submission.
The British Library Board05Maps 1035.(307.)
Created by Japanese student Kisaburo Ohara at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, this map characterizes Russia as a black octopus. As Ohara wrote, “The black octopus is so avaricious, that he stretches out his eight arms in all directions, and seizes up every thing that comes within his reach … But as it sometimes happens he gets wounded seriously even by a small fish, owing to his too much covetousness.”
The British Library Board06Afganistan rug
In the wake of the war in Afghanistan, carpet-makers started to create designs including maps of the country—and some specifically designed to appeal to military servicemen looking for a souvenir on the way home, decorated with AK-47s, tanks, helicopters, and grenades.
The British Library Board07Pg21-004 1581 Bunting, Heinrich Clover Leaf
In 1581, a professor of theology named Heinrich Bunting published a book illustrated with mostly-geographical woodcut maps—and this strange cloverleaf portrayal of the three “Old World” continents. He placed Jerusalem at the center of the world, with each continent radiating outwards in a leaf. America gets isolated by itself at the bottom left corner, meaningfully separated from the Holy Trinity represented by the three main continents.
The British Library Board081215.l.6, pp.30-31
Another one of Heinrich Bunting’s strange maps depicts Europe in the form of a power-wielding queen. This one’s worth exploring in detail, but some highlights: Italy forms the queen’s left arm, which holds an orb formed by “Sicilia”; her neckline is traced by the Alps; and the River Rhine forms her necklace.
The British Library Board09pg41-du Val Le Jeu du Monde BL
Printed in 1645, this is one of the first playable maps. Players begin on the outside of the spiral in and roll a die to progress through the spaces on the board, like in Snakes and Ladders. The goal is to land exactly on the 63rd space—created by Parisian mapmaker Pierre Duval, this game’s ultimate goal is France.
The British Library Board10Maps 187.i.3.(3.)
Created during the Napoleonic Wars, this map was created by famous English satirist James Gillray. We don’t need to spell this out for you, except for the fact that ‘bum-boat’ was once a common nautical term for a small ship used to ferry supplies to larger ships—the French boats seen clustered around the coast of Normandy and Brittany, ready to attack.
The British Library Board11Maps.cc.5.a.230
This map, by a well-known English actress named Lilian Lancaster, depicts the presidential election of 1880—between James Garfield (on the left) and his Democratic opponent Winfield Scott Hancock. Uncle Sam appears to be pulling on Hancock’s sash—maybe pulling him away from his childish antics?
The British Library Board12Maps * 30058.(1.)
This birds-eye view of the Harz Mountains in Germany received aggravated complaints about the curious figures surrounding the mountain: six witches circling the peak on brooms, pitchforks, and goats, and two gleefully dancing on top of it. In legends, Harz is the center of devil worship, and during the festival of St. Walpurga, witches come to dance on top of the mountain. Map readers were not amused, and the next version of the map, issued in 1752, included an apology for the satanic additions.
