"EXPLANATION"

I like maps. I especially like old maps. The Peters Colony map I was charged with rendering in tile didn't have a "legend", but the mosaic begged me to include one anyway.

So, part of the research for the project involved studying the legends of 19th century maps for style and content. (The nerd in me got off on that.)
What type of lettering and decoration did they use? What did the compass rose look like? Who and what was mentioned? And what's this??? They didn't even call it a legend. No, more often it was an "Explanation."


What follows are a bunch of not so great pictures of the "explanation" engraved into the tile of the mosaic map.

I think I solved the problem I was having in Blogger of not always enabling browsers to click on pictures to enlarge them. (It has to do with losing html code if you drag them around during editing.) So, if you want to see more detail, click on a pic and hopefully it will enlarge.









Hey, i already admitted the photos suck. Basically, what they show are a bunch of hand drawn, hand engraved blah, blah, blahs to help the viewer understand the mosaic.



There is some fancy scroll work those old map makers were so fond of...





The scale.
(Meh, if you've been reading, you've already seen it.)


There's a compass rose not found in the research, but inspired by components of several of the old ones...


And of course, necessary information is included in the "explanation."


And...


Hey, wait a sec! How'd that election results map get in here?