When I compiled a previous post entitled “A Discourse on Map Pins and Pinnage,” largely based on Willard C. Brinton’s Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts (1914) I rather forgot that Brinton had another tome, published in 1939, entitled Graphic Presentation.
Among the pages of this latter book can be found a few items worthy of note: J. Edgar Hoover pinning a map of FBI personnel (above), and another image of a map being pinned in the wild (most popular automobile colors, by U.S. state, 1939):
Also, a fine selection of map pins, updated for the demands of map pinners in 1939:
A few other stray map pin items have also come to my attention.
An advertisement in The American City (11, 1914) suggesting pinned maps EVERY city should construct:
Or one from System: The Magazine of Business (33, 1918):
Or a bit of advice on using pinned “progress maps” in oil field work (Underground Conditions in Oil Fields, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1920):
In Select Notes: A Commentary on the International Lessons for 1893 the Rev. Peloubet recalls the use of map pins for Bible study in the novel Tom Brown at Oxford:
Run out of map pins? Your local dealer is all out due to war-time demands? Popular Mechanics (March 1945) has instructions for DIY map pins:
Enough on map pins already.
I wonder if anyone really made their own map pins? Oral historians of 20c. cartography might know. If I tried to make map pins to those directions, it would probably end in me burning down my house, or at least scorching some kitchen cabinets. And mmm, melting borax. (Tidbit I just learned: “borax” is a Persian word.)
[…] Via Making Maps DIY Cartography […]
[…] Methods for Presenting Facts (1919), Willard Brinton, who has been discussed in two Making Maps posts, offered up a somewhat lengthy description of a do-it-yourself approach to building a pin map […]
hi
thanks for this post
you’ve really inspired me for my graphic design project on cartography, map making/designs and typography. :)
i love the in depth look in map pins and how the importance of it in crime investigation.
also enjoyed your ‘Word Maps | Words on Maps | Map Typography’ post :D
great stuff!
Nisha
“I want to hang a map of the world in my house, then I am going to put pins into all the locations I have traveled to, but first I will have to travel to the top two corners of the map, so it won’t fall down”
– Mitch Hedberg
I included that quote in my “Making Maps” book! John K.
[…] Example historical note: Map Pins […]
[…] A map of Texas appeared in Fortune in December of 1939: This was a dot map made of map pins stuck into the map, then photographed. This raises the specter of map pins and pinnage (and a Bit More on Map Pins)! […]