Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
![[Randall Munroe], MAP OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND RELATED POINTS OF INTEREST. NP, 2007.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BRM4035-Map-of-Online-Communities_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Randall Munroe’s innovative imaginary map of online communities, from the early days of social media. For this map Munroe rendered an entire region of the internet as an imaginary world, depicting major and minor “online communities” as landmasses, their “geographic area representing[ing] estimated size of membership.” Per “the compass-rose-shaped island” at lower center, communities in the […]
A 1996 imaginary map of the Earth after “The Tribulation”, as predicted by futurist, spiritualist and self-styled prophet Gordon-Michael Scallion (1942-?) This mammoth world map summarizes Scallion’s predictions and depicts their impact cartographically. The anticipated mayhem is predicted to begin with three “shifts” in the magnetic poles, each of six to eight degrees, expected to […]
![Timothy Edward Downs, Road Map to the World Wide Web [and on verso:] PC Computing The World Wide Web Business and Beyond. New York: Ziff-Davis, 1995.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BRM3353-Downs-Road-Map-to-World-Wide-Web-1995_lowres-e1564421249193-150x150.jpg)
A rare and striking 1995 map of the World Wide Web capturing the excitement of the earliest days of the new technology. Designed by legendary technical artist Timothy Edward Downs as a bonus for purchasers of PC Computing magazine. PC Computing and Timothy Edward Downs Back in the early nineties PC Magazine, PC World and […]
![Timothy Edward Downs, PC Computing[:] Road Map to the Internet. New York: Ziff-Davis, 1994.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BRM3428-Downs-Internet-1994_recto_lowres-1-scaled-e1660062686470-150x150.jpg)
Possibly the first map of the Internet for popular consumption, designed by legendary technical artist Timothy Edward Downs as a bonus for purchasers of PC Computing magazine. PC Computing and Timothy Edward Downs Back in the early nineties PC Magazine, PC World and PC Computing were in a three-way race for subscribers and newsstand sales. […]
![Chieko Shiomi [and George Maciunas], spatial poem no. 2[:] a fluxatlas[:] THIS IS THE RECORD OF VARIOUS DIRECTIONS TO WHICH PEOPLE WERE SIMULTANEOUSLY MOVING OR FACING AROUND 10PM ( GREENWICH TIME ) OCTOBER 15TH 1965. [NP:] Fluxus, 1966/reprinted 1992.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BRM3173-Shiomi-Fluxatlas-1965_1992-map-lowres-scaled-e1607457245196-150x150.jpg)
A crowdsourced cartographic work documenting a moment on October 15, 1965, spatial poem no. 2 was the second of nine such events staged by artist Chieko Shiomi. In 1964 Japanese artist and composer Chieko (or Mieko) Shiomi (1938- ) was invited to New York City by George Maciunas, founder of the Fluxus network of artists, […]
An interesting look at the state of the nuclear power industry in the United States, just six years after the disaster at Three Mile Island. This outline map of the country uses four distinct symbols to show the locations of nuclear power plants in operation, under construction, on order, or “postponed indefinitely” as of August […]
![[Archive of film location maps for distribution to cast and crew of dozens of films and TV shows.] Los Angeles area, 1983-1987.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BRM3609-Film-location-map-archive-1983-1987_lowres-150x150.jpg)
An enormous collection of 281 Los Angeles-area film location maps from the mid-1980s, distributed to cast and crew just in advance of their shoots. Ephemeral in the extreme, designed to be used for a few days at most and then discarded. The archive represents a great swathe of mid-‘80s mainstream American film and TV culture, […]
![[After David Horsey], THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RONALD REAGAN. Information Center of the World Peace Council , [1982-83?].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BRM3543-World-According-to-Ronald-Reagan-scaled-e1586699863308-150x150.jpg)
An entertaining persuasive map from the early years of the Ronald Reagan Presidency, published by the Helsinki-based World Peace Council and offering a liberal caricature of the Great Communicator’s world view. The map depicts the United States and Soviet Union wildly out of scale with the rest of the world. The United States is divided […]
![Mr. Radiation, NRC TOURS presents… THREE MILE ISLAND VACATION PACKAGE. Mechanicsburg, PA: Mr. Radiation Products[!], 1979.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/BRM3998-Three-Miles-Island-Tours-1979_lowres-scaled-e1658933121474-150x150.jpg)
An unrecorded poster by “Mr. Radiation”, sending up the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The worst nuclear accident in American history began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979 at the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A routine maintenance procedure led to a stuck coolant valve, and […]
![Rivers / Photo by Malcolm Varon / Printed by Colorcraft Offset, Inc., America Needs MCGOVERN. HE CAN PUT IT TOGETHER. [New York?: McGovern presidential campaign? 1972.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/BRM3885-America-Needs-McGovern-1972-scaled-e1629649760834-150x150.jpg)
A striking, quirky and quite rare poster for the catastrophic 1972 presidential campaign of South Dakota Senator George McGovern. The 1972 campaign took place against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, ongoing cultural upheavals and the still-fresh memories of Kent State and the assassinations of two Kennedys and Martin Luther King. I was only five […]