CARTOGRAPHER'S COLLECTION #01: Mid-Century French Tourism Booklets

Cartography is such a diverse artform, evolving throughout the decades and serving whatever purpose it needs to, ideally with a sense of style.  I came across these series of maps in an op shop, and was amazed with them.

These printed in English series of tourism brochures were made around the 1950's or 1960's, and while thematically are similar acorss the series, each map has a distinct colour scheme and style.

The maps and illustrations all appear to be hand drawn, and each map has around 3-4 colours.

Each map has different folds to, the Alps one opens up to these "double door" style introduction, which then unfolds to a large map.

Here's one of the Franche-Comte region.  I found a copy like this on an old online auction site, which has given me the limited information about the booklet series.

One thing I love about this is that each of the key cartographic elements is represented in an artistic way, including the borders.

Some of the booklets came with an intinerary guide included

Included in the intinerary is a strip map, synonomous with road touring during the boom time of car ownership

The detail in these maps is so gorgeous

Each map uses a different set of symbols depending on the attractions of the area.

I often talk about cartography being a mix of art and science, and these maps are a great example of that.

These have the ability to conjure imagery of touring in a 1950's model car through Southern France, visting villages along the way.

Paper maps are a static representation of a place, and act as a glimpse into a different time.

If I had a spare 2 years or so, I'd love to digitally re-create these maps, or adapt the style to local Victorian regional versions.

While Google Maps makes navigation and touring more convenient, we lose a beautiful artform, as well as a memento of trips taken.  These maps form part of the inspiration of what I do.  I'm creating a Victorian version of these maps would make a fantastic large scale project after the Shire map is done.