Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection

Investigator: 

PJ Mode, Katherine Reagan

Year: 

2015

Website

Old map of the world

This project digitizes and makes available a collection of “persuasive cartography,” maps primarily intended to send a message, to influence the opinion of the viewer, rather than to communicate “objective” geographic information (Tyner 1974). Maps of this sort have also been described as “suggestive cartography,” “rhetorical cartography” and “propaganda maps” (a less apt term, because the word “propaganda” has become a pejorative).

Related links: 

How to Make Maps and Influence People (National Geographic)

Maps with an agenda: Alum donates ‘persuasive cartography’ collection to library (Ezra Update)

New online collection of “persuasive” maps (Mapping the Nation)

The Map as Persuader (Strange Maps)

Persuasive Cartography (Map Room Blog)

Propaganda Maps Showing Threats to Hitler’s Germany, 1930’s (JF Ptak Science Books)

A Vivid 1937 Map Imagining How Japan Might Attack the West Coast of the United States (Slate.com)

This Map Shows How the Presidential Election is 1888 Repeating Itself (Atlas Obscura)

Maps Made to Influence and Deceive (Hyperallergic)

This Map Proves Britain Loves Tea More Than Anyone Else (Atlas Obscura)

From Bordeaux to Brie, This Map Plots the Origin of Your Favorite French Food (Atlas Obscura)

The Octopus, a Motif of Evil in Historical Propaganda Maps (Hyperallergic)