MediCom has issued a Hello Kitty "Anatomy" series of toys, designed by Dr. Romanelli. I like the antiqued version at right. Anatomically Correct Hello Kitty... Not What You're Thinking" (via Tokyo Mango)
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Stefan Rimm
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- Hello Kitty "Anatomy" series
MediCom has issued a Hello Kitty "Anatomy" series of toys, designed by Dr. Romanelli. I like the antiqued version at right. Anatomically Correct Hello Kitty... Not What You're Thinking" (via Tokyo Mango)
10 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Hello Kitty "Anatomy" series
MediCom has issued a Hello Kitty "Anatomy" series of toys, designed by Dr. Romanelli. I like the antiqued version at right. Anatomically Correct Hello Kitty... Not What You're Thinking" (via Tokyo Mango)
10 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Reversing the brain impairments caused by sleeplessness Researchers have identified the pathway in the brain that causes cognitive impairment when we haven't gotten enough sleep. In a new study, Penn State biologists and neuroscientists found that when mice were deprived of sleep, a particular enzyme built up in the brain's hippocampus. The hippocampus is the region of the brain linked to learning and the formation of memories. Giving the mice a drug to reduce the enzyme counteracted some of the negative effects of sleeplessness. Principal investigator Ted Abel and his colleagues published their results in the scientific journal Nature. From the University of Pennsylvania:
“Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep,” Abel said. “Our work has identified a treatment in mice that can reverse the cognitive impact of sleep deprivation. Further, our work identifies specific molecular changes in neurons caused by sleep deprivation, and future work on this target protein promises to reveal novel therapeutic approaches to treat the cognitive deficits that accompany sleep disturbances seen in sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.”
"Fighting Sleep, Penn Researchers Reverse the Cognitive Impairment Caused By Sleep Deprivation"
10 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Reversing the brain impairments caused by sleeplessness Researchers have identified the pathway in the brain that causes cognitive impairment when we haven't gotten enough sleep. In a new study, Penn State biologists and neuroscientists found that when mice were deprived of sleep, a particular enzyme built up in the brain's hippocampus. The hippocampus is the region of the brain linked to learning and the formation of memories. Giving the mice a drug to reduce the enzyme counteracted some of the negative effects of sleeplessness. Principal investigator Ted Abel and his colleagues published their results in the scientific journal Nature. From the University of Pennsylvania:
“Millions of people regularly obtain insufficient sleep,” Abel said. “Our work has identified a treatment in mice that can reverse the cognitive impact of sleep deprivation. Further, our work identifies specific molecular changes in neurons caused by sleep deprivation, and future work on this target protein promises to reveal novel therapeutic approaches to treat the cognitive deficits that accompany sleep disturbances seen in sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.”
"Fighting Sleep, Penn Researchers Reverse the Cognitive Impairment Caused By Sleep Deprivation"
10 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - How to Give a Great Speech: Part 2 Delivery
An important speech can be a worry. The keys for success are good preparation and confident delivery. If you have prepared your talk well and memorised the key points then you are ready to give a great performance. And it is a performance. Giving a talk should be much more than simply conveying information – it involves an element of drama and of theatre. Here are some tips:
1. Be confident.
You will be nervous and that is natural. The best antidote is to rehearse a clear and confident opening to your talk. The audience can read your demeanour instantly. They will be sad to see a quiet, diffident start so please them with a bright, confident opening. You could ask a question, throw down a challenge, quote a famous person, tell a joke or state an interesting fact. Your start sets the tone and a good start will lift you and the audience.
2. Look them in the eye.
Do not hide behind a lectern or read from your notes. Walk about the stage, look directly at people and talk to them from your heart. Eye contact is important. It engages the audience and raises the level of the talk.
3. Speak clearly.
Your voice is the tool that does the job so use it well. You should not rush or mumble. Use clear short sentences and speak with conviction. Make sure that you can he heard. For larger audiences always use a microphone. Vary your voice. Practise altering the volume, pitch and speed of your delivery. Variety of delivery adds interest especially if it is done in such a way as to reinforce the message.
4. Use some rhetoric.
Barack Obama is a master of using rhetorical devices such as contrast and the list of three. Simple contrasts work well e.g. ‘We come not in fear, but in hope.’ The list of three items is very powerful e.g. ‘We can do this thing, we should do this thing and we must do this thing.’ These well-established methods of delivery may sound a little contrived when you practise them but the audience will respond.
5. Pause.
The most powerful weapon in the speaker’s armoury is the pause. Use it carefully and it will rivet your listeners. For example use it before an important item, after a question or before delivering the punch line to your story.
6. Don’t worry it you forget something.
If you speak from memory and without notes then you will often forget some item that you had intended to say. Don’t worry. The audience does not know that you missed anything so don’t apologise or scramble around. If your speech is short and with a clear message then it is fine.
7. Finish strongly.
Signal that you are concluding and then give a simple summary. End with the one clear message that you want people to take away and then thank them for their attention.
Speaking in public can be daunting but exhilarating too. Enjoy it.
Paul Sloane is an author and speaker on leadership, innovation and lateral thinking. His most recent book is The Innovative Leader. He helps organizations improve innovation, creativity and leadership. He is the founder of Destination Innovation. He has written 15 books of lateral thinking puzzles and hosts the lateral puzzles forum.
10 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Latin Becomes a Living Language on Facebook Most of the time when we stumble upon a Latin phrase, it's etched in stone: carved in the hallways of universities, chiseled on facades of government buildings or carefully imprinted in cathedral foyers and churchyards. The language seems almost immovable. Yet beginning today, Latin — the staid and reliable language — springs to life on Facebook.
Latin has joined the more than 70 languages we've made available on the site in the past two years, including some which have launched just today — Azeri, Faroese, Georgian and Nepali. Some of these are languages that millions of people speak across the globe. Others are dialects that specific communities use in select geographic areas. Still others are just for fun: "Pirate" may not appeal to everyone, but for those nostalgic for the days of Blackbeard and Captain Hook, it's there for you in Facebook's language drop-down menu.
To students of Latin, the availability of the language on Facebook may be just what's needed to narrow the distance between themselves and the venerable language. After all, the experience of studying Latin can frequently seem somewhat far and away. Even the readings prescribed by Latin teachers have an air of detachment about them: Cicero and Demosthenes, Caesar and Virgil. While students of "living languages" practice on subtitled films and in conversation groups, on vacations and with exchange students, Latin scholars soak in rare living breaths of their studied language, satisfying themselves with the occasional legal phrase, nursery plant, benediction or school motto. Recognizing verb stems and identifying vocabulary roots just somehow aren't quite the same as ordering off a menu or asking for directions.
Though Latin has been long out of use, for some of us, it never loses its intrigue. As a native English speaker, I enrolled in Latin to supplement my study of Romance languages. I still remember reading a translated copy of "Winnie the Pooh" in Latin, and gradually working my way through state speeches and philosophic commentary dating from the Roman Empire. When I joined Facebook a year ago, I chose a Latin phrase, "dictum meum pactum" ("my word is my bond"), as the phrase that currently appears on my Facebook business card.
It's been a few years since I've cracked open my Latin textbook, but I'm grateful to all of the people on Facebook who meticulously translated the site into a "dead" language. Cobwebs may accumulate on the stones that bear Latin phrases, but they will never conceal its distinguished past, nor stand in the way of people's desire to keep the language alive — even on the web.
Elizabeth, an associate on the Facebook communications team, is looking forward to dusting off her Latin by using it as her language setting on Facebook.11 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Who does Google think you are?
One of the themes we’ve been discussing here is the idea that prestige and attention are the main currencies of academia. So it only makes sense that you want your online presence to be an accessible and positive reflection of your work and, at the very least, you want to be distinguishable from all of the other John Smiths in the world.
MIT has recently put together a tool called Personas which attempts to figure out this question of online identity. I say attempts because to be honest, it’s a bit hit and miss. The design looks pretty good but the results seem to change each time you run it, you can’t review the underlying data and it doesn’t even have a roll-over to quantify each chunk of your profile (e.g. percent of total, source documents etc).
It’s a noble effort though and it got me thinking that there are two sides to the question of online identity.
- User perspective: It’s a pain having a different user name and password for every website so initiatives like OpenID and Shibboleth should make things easier by providing common log-on standards. Similarly APML (Attention Profile Markup Language) is an emerging technology for customizing content based on your interests and habits. Both technologies are valuable for improving your online experience.
- Search perspective: The second issue is being able to search for someone and know that the results pertain to a specific person. The user perspective technologies discussed above can help in this regard, as they establish a common link between all of your online activities. And although I’ve misplaced the link somewhere, I’ve heard of some researchers using generic online data to reverse-engineer a unique identify (e.g. a Joe from California on Facebook here, a Joe who works at UCLA in biology there, etc.).
Clearly there are a lot of privacy issues involved as marketers (and governments) would love to have this sort of detailed record of who went where doing what. But let’s come back to the question of academic online identity. For a user perspective, I think we’re getting there. I can’t speak for everyone obviously but at Imperial, my single sign-on gives access to my publications database, the online journals, administrative data and many other facilities both on the local network and the wider web.
From a search perspective, there’s a way to go before we can amalgamate our various online activities into a consistent verifiable public identity. Yet the academic environment is the perfect place to start building and testing these identity systems. There’s a wealth of metadata available in journals (citations, institutions etc) and one could establish fairly well-defined problem boundaries for example by using the
.edu,.ac.ukor journal publisher domains. Google Scholar probably already does this to some extent but when searching for an author, it doesn’t suggest different unique authors. Instead I would love to have one portal, accessed by a single identity which is verified by some official higher education authority, that could crawl the web and aggregate publications, blogs, newspaper articles, conference appearances, etc and combine this with social meta-data from citations or other sources (e.g. LinkedIn). Users could create public profiles and the private data could be useful for determining discipline rankings and influence (e.g. the IDEAS ranking of economists) and so on.There’s a lot going on in this area and I’ve probably only skimmed the surface. But I wanted to raise the issue and see if anyone had any thoughts about how online identity issues for academics could be handled. At the very least, have a play with the Personas thingy and see if you, like me, are 5% illegal.
11 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Image Archeology Site is filled with some excellent images of the Southern California landscape in simpler days and times.
Santa's Village
Los Angeles, California
Ghost Town Jail
Knott's Berry Place
Buena Park, California
Gina Lollobrigida
Movieland Wax Museum
Buena Park, CA12 months on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - Puzzle and Game Maps The materials below share the common characteristics of being a jigsaw puzzle or board game incorporating a map, and being produced before 1900.
--You cannot teach geography in any way so effectually as by setting the pupil to construct the map from the dissected parts.
--Exceedingly valuable in imparting novelty and interest to a useful study.
--An agreeable contrivance for blending amusement with instruction.
--In putting these maps together, which children delight to do, they will learn "geography without a master," and keep quiet as a mice.
--Every family should possess this series of maps that the younger members may profitably while away their leisure hours. Nothing can be more useful.
--An ingenious device for teaching geography.
--Physic and geography were equally distasteful in our youthful days, but sugar coated pills have induced children to cry for the first, and we venture to assert that the ingenious originators of this idea, have rendered the second attractive.
[press quotes printed inside the box lid of the Merriam game seen below]
These maps of the Caribbean Antilles and China are details from a map game conceived by the Benedictine priest, Don Casimir Freschot and published by Giovanni Pare in Venice in about 1680."This game is probably the earliest geographical game ever published." [!??]
Freschot was an author of about 50 books, mainly on history subjects, and a few dedicated to Venice and its nobility. While in Venice he also composed a goose game to facilitate "the teaching of geography to the young venetian nobility". The copper plate was engraved by Lucini and comprised 4 larger maps of the continents and 153 smaller maps of other areas and with a prospect of Venice at the center of it. There is only one known example in existance of the full broadsheet at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. [source]
A Journey Through Europe or the Play of Geography [1759]
This game is believed to be the first or one of the first known games in the English-speaking world to be attributed to an individual designer. It was first published by Carrington Bowles, a British publisher of hand-tinted, cloth-backed maps. This game reconfigured a map of Europe to provide a game rather than a reference. It's a straightforward track game.The game uses a teetotum - a spinning top with numbered sides - as dice were viewed as gambling instruments that would not be permitted in respectable households. The players begin and end in London, and many spaces advance players or transport them to other portions of the board. For example, a playing piece that lands on Hanover "shall by order of Ye King of Great Britain who is Elector, be conducted to ... Gibraltar to visit his countrymen who keep garrison there" while the playing piece that lands on "Rome for kissing ye Pope's Toe shall be banished for his folly to ...the cold island of Iceland and miss three turns".
[source/info: link / link / link / link /]
Spilsburys Jigsaw Puzzle Map
This map is a jigsaw puzzle. It was designed by John Spilsbury in 1766. Spilsbury, formerly the apprentice to the Royal Geographer, is believed to have been the first commercial manufacturer of jigsaws. He managed to start quite a trend. For a good 20 years during the mid 1700s, all manufactured jigsaws were in the form of dissected maps like Spilsbury's.
The maps were designed as teaching aids for geography classes. As pupils put the pieces together, they would learn how different countries connected to one another.
John Spilsbury certainly spotted a business opportunity. In the space of two years he marketed the eight map subjects most likely to appeal to upper class English parents: the world, the four continents then known (Africa, America, Asia and Europe), England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
This map is a rare survivor - only one other Spilsbury map is known to exist in a British public collection. [source]
Incidentally, the cartographer John Spilsbury is widely credited as being the inventor of the jigsaw puzzle during the 1760s. [All the earliest jigsaw puzzles were in fact maps (or more correctly, 'dissected maps' - they weren't dubbed 'jigsaw puzzles' until the early 1900s)]. Spilsbury was almost certainly the first commercial producer of the dissected maps but controversy remains as to whether or not he actually 'invented' them originally. [see: Who Invented the Jigsaw Puzzle? at icollectpuzzles]
Wallis's Tour of Europe A New Geographical Pastime
Published by John Wallis in London in 1794. Dissected and laid on linen. [source]
First Edition of this famous map-game, which was reprinted in 1802 & 1811 (and probably at other times). A rare specimen of the craze for educational games that swept Europe and Great Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this highly attractive map is the game board for an edifying tour of the leading cities of the Continent and the British Isles.The players use a 'totum' and "pyramids or travellers" to compete: each player in turn rolls the totum and moves his piece along a route of numbered cities and locations, the final goal being arrival in London, "the first city in Europe." In addition to the luck of the roll, players must cope with delays in some cities--in Florence a Traveller must "stay here one turn to see the fine paintings in this place", and disasters elsewhere, if a player lands on the Scilly Islands, "by running foul of the rocks, the Traveller loses the game." All editions of this work are uncommon. [pba]
Walker's New Geographical Game Exhibiting a Tour Through Europe
Hand-coloured engraved paper on linen published in London by William Darton in 1810. In order to play this European centred race game each player must have a marker, usually in the shape of a pyramid, and four counters. An eight-sided teetotum spinner is also needed. There are 133 playing spaces covering the map playing surface, beginning in London and ending in Athens. A separate booklet sets out the rules and the rewards and forfeits for each numbered space. As well as providing information on the history and commerce of the places, the game also encouraged reading and conversational skills. [source]
The Travellers or A Tour Through Europe 1842
Designed by William Spooner, the players in this game race from separate starting cities to designated destination cities. Certain spaces on the board require the player to pay or collect tokens from a pool. The first player to reach his destination takes all of the tokens from the pool. [source]
Wallis’s Picturesque Round Game of the Produce &Manufactures of the Counties of England & Wales (c. 1826-37)
Educational map game of England and Wales, designed to teach notable aspects of each county. Produce and manufacturers are illustrated in pictorial style and numbered on variously colored counties, together with famous sites and popular pastimes.The map also includes topographical features such as mountains, bodies of water and forests. Ships dot the seas. The cartouche, in the form of a castle wall in ruins, is surrounded by scenes of a farmer and wife, railroad, ships, etc. The game takes the form of a “dissected” (sectioned folding) map, that opens into a race game that starts at the mouth of the Thames and travels along 151 stops to the destination of London. For example number 10, Ely, was known for eels and strawberries, and number 126, Dorchester, was known for butter and strong beer. Originally published by Edward Wallis between 1826 and 1837, Wallis’s publication line appears on the map. The name of John Passmore, who took over Wallis’s stock in 1847, appears on the instruction booklet.
The Bodleian Library at Oxford University in England has both the Wallis and Passmore editions of this game in their collection, and both the British Library and the University of Wales have the 1844 edition. The game was innovative with respect to its cartographic style combining correct county boundaries and non-traditional pictorial design.
The map is dissected, backed on linen, and folds into cloth covers, as issued. A 12-page booklet published by Passmore includes rules, explanations, and data. Apparently the game was originally issued with a “Card” containing 9 letters, 9 numbers, 2 crosses and one blank, not present in this set. Players were to supply their own “counters” or “tetotums.” The original booklet suggests that the game be played for a prize such as “fruit, raisins, nuts, cakes, &c,” or if played for money, it was suggested that “the winners will have the privilege of contributing the money that have gained to any benevolent or charitable object which shall be recommended by the lady of the house.” [source / Bodleian / Glazer]
Despite this print appearing in quite a few repositories, I haven't been able to find a large version. However, I spliced together a partially complete high(ish) resolution image from the Aberystwyth site that can be seen here.
Wallis's New Game of Wanderers in the Wilderness
Hand-coloured etching on linen, published 1818-1847. The Wilderness in this case is South America, a country continent that would have been unknown and mysterious to most people at the time that this game was published. There are 84 playing spaces and the direction of play is a circular one, beginning and ending on the north coast. The rules booklet that originally accompanied this game is missing, so the progression of play with its rewards and forfeits is unknown. [source]
A plain map or emblematic chart for the geographical game of Europe,according to the method of the Abbe Gaultier. By Mr. Wauthier, his pupil, 1797.
Hand-coloured engraved outline map showing unnamed countries, rivers, mountains, cities, etc. [this edition published in 1821]
Publication Title: 'A complete course of geography, by means of instructive games, invented by the Abbe Gaultier. Collated with the author's last Paris edition, and digested for Europe conformably to the territorial arrangements of the Pacification of 1815, by Jehoshaphat Aspin. In three parts. The first part, containing the game of simple geography, for teaching the names and situations of the different countries and places of the Earth. The second part, containing a concise treatise on the artificial sphere. The third part, containing a geographical game, illustrative of ancient and modern history ... London: printed for John Harris and Son, corner of St. Paul'sChurch-yard.'
La récréation Européenne ou jeu des princes de l'Europe
Hand-coloured etching made by Maurille Antoine Moithey; published in Paris in 1770 by Jean Baptiste Crépy.
Game board with 61 circular numbered compartments arranged in a spiral, each containing a map of a state, with the state named beneath, the first being Spain and the last being France; in the centre the large final compartment containing a map of France, a map of Europe, beneath which, the royal coat of arms.
Inscription Content: Lettered with the title on either side of the coat-of-arms, reading "LA RÉCRÉATION EUROPÉENE/ou jeu des princes de l'Europe/ Dedié et Présenté/ à Nosseigneurs les Enfans de France", beneath which, on the l,"Se vend à Paris chez Crepy rue S. Jacques prés/ la rue de la parcheminerie à S. Pierre" and to r "Par leur treshumble et tres obeissant/ serviteur Moithey Ing. / Geographe"; in the bottom margin "On trouvera chez le Sr Crepyune Collection de Jeux adaptés à la Géographie, l'Histoire, et à l'Art Militaire, et autres propres à recréer etinstruire la Jeunesse" and to r, "Avec Privilege du Roi". [source]
L'Historiographie du Royaume de France
Hand-coloured anonymous etching published in Paris between 1740-1768.
Game board with numbered compartments from 1 to 108 arranged in a spiral, the more elaborate compartments bearing a cartouche with the name of a region in France, beneath which are listed its principal industries, the subsequent compartments containing lists of its principal cities and towns, with a key to their status, the final compartment being Paris, surmounted by a portrait medaillion of Louis XV.In the centre, a map of France, showing all the towns mentioned in the game, above which is the title and a description of the map; to the left of the map, the rules, to the right, a description of the "Air, Sol, Peuples, et Villes" of France, the longitudes and latitudes of the principal towns, and a key. [source]
Jeu Géographique de la République Français
Published at Chez Basset in Paris in 1795. J.N. Mauborgne, a former professor of geography in Paris, created this “geographical game of the French Republic”in honor of the government of the National Convention during the French Revolution. Mauborgne’s game involvestraveling around republican France, which was divided into 83 'departments', the new unit of territorial administration that the Revolution introduced to replace the much larger historical provinces.Each space on the map shows a different department with its departmental capital, or chef-lieu. Players move counter-clockwise about the board from department to department, ending on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which is draped in thewords “liberty” and “equality” and crowned by a Phrygian bonnet dangling on a pike. The game board also features, in the upper left hand corner, an inset map of France’s Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue and numerous Gallic roosters, which the Revolution transformed into a popular national image. [source]
Le Jeu de France
Published by Etienne Vouillemont in Paris in 1659. Pierre Duval was a nephew of the great French geographer Nicolas Sanson who rose to become 'geographer to the king' in his own right. In the 1660s and 1670s he published a large number of atlases and geographic works. Duval was the first in France to conceive of geographical games that aimed to inform and instruct while providing entertainment.Jeu de France (The game of France) is a chutes-and-ladders game made up of 63 squares, each representing a province, except for the last, which contains a map of the entire kingdom. The game offers insight into the clichés and stereotypes that Parisians applied to the French provinces. Brittany is noted for its debauchery, Tours for its lovely avenues, Forez for its knives and scissors, and Ponthieu as a theater ofoperations for the king’s army (a reference to the recent Franco-Spanish war). [source]
France - Provinces et DépartementsIN: Jeux Instructifs Depose France Provinces & Departments Geographie
Published in 1870. Map in full color. Game cards attached to right side with elastic bands. Legend and instructions included on game board. Complete with 36 cards of the Provinces. A very elegantly made game. Game board in full color with uncolored vignettes of France scenes (complete with numbered areas) in each corner. Map case folds and locks with metal clasps to give the appearance of a book. [source]
Waterloo [1895]
Very little is known about this game. The map shows a area from Versailles and Paris on one side and Brussels and Namur on the other. Key towns/cities (in gold) include Quatre Bras and Ligny. It seems to be a forerunner for Kreigspiel Junior with its point to point movement system. The gameboard is the top of the box (wooden) which also has a slot for the game pieces. [source]
[googlemaps / Waterloo campaign map]
The Traveller's tour through the United States
Hand-coloured print published by F & R Lockwood in 1822
The board is a map of the United States c. 1822, the westernmost states being Missouri and Louisiana. Because dice were frowned upon as instruments of the horrible vice of gambling, included a teetotum, a sort of spinner used to randomly yield a number from 1 to 8. This is used to determine the first player. Lines are drawn on the map to connect cities in a continuous path which players must follow. However, the cities are not named, but numbered.Upon arrival, at a new city, the player must correctly name the place and, if playing the advanced version, its population, or lose a turn and try again. The first to reach New Orleans (population 10,000) wins. The first known game published in the United States [?!]. Unlike other games, it was also invented in the USA rather than being a copy of a British game, as many later ones were. The publisher were sellers of books in New York and later in 1822 also released Traveller's Tour Through Europe. [source: NYPL / BgG]
'Norris' Cyclopaedic Map Of The United States Of America, (Excepting Alaska) Together with adjacent portions of the Dominion of Canada and of the United States of Mexico ... Prepared for use in schools and in the home circle. Patented June 12, 1883. Originated, Manufactured and Published by W.R. Norris, New York. 1885.'
An unusual geographical game played with a map of the United States (painted on wooden slats that roll up) and pins with the names of cities. Under the title is the explanation: 'The cyclopaedic character is derived from the combination of the map proper with its descriptive blocks representing capitals and business centers, and which always accompany it.' There is also a printed sheet of instructions - 'Rules for playing the games of the Zylo-Karta.' [source]
Dissected Outline Map of the United States of America
Published by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1880.
69 piece cardboard puzzle. Map of U.S. Verso, industrial scenes. On the inside of the box cover is a map of the U.S. and some explanatory text: "The map is engraved in outline ... On the back are illustrations of the prominent industries ... the whole forming a complete object lesson of the geography and natural history of the United States. This is by far the largest and finest dissected map published..." [source]For non-Americans: note the single Dakota (the 2 states were admitted into the Union in 1889) and 'Indian Territories' for Oklahoma (1907) (I think it's seen in most/all the USA maps here).
Rambles Through Our Country - An Instructive Geographical Game for the Young
Published by the American Publishing Company Hartford in 1886 with chromolithography by Schaefer & Weisenbach {or they were later publishers}. [source / LoC]
Clemens' Silent Teacher. Dissected Map of the United States and of Each State in Counties. Manufactured in 1893 by Rev. E.J. Clemens, Clayville, N.Y.
Box cover shows an American handing out puzzles to people from different countries dressed in national costumes. State map boxes sit in the bottom left-hand corner. The jigsaw puzzle uses a Colton Map of the United States. The map is two sided. On top side is a map of the United States. The bottom side is an advertisement for Sherwin Williams. [source].JPG "Dissected Map of the United States box covers")
Edition box covers for dissected map games. The University of Florida at Tampa has a 9 minute film on youtube about the background and symbolism of that print on the left. [source]
Map of the United States and Candada from Merriam,Moore's + Co's Series of Dissected Maps [published in 1853]
Merriam, Moore & Co. produced a series of dissected maps of the United States including the Eastern, Middle, Southern, Western, and New York State. The puzzle sits in a wooden case 24x17 designed to look like a book with a metal clasp to keep it shut. The inside cover includes reviews of the puzzles and a list of other available dissected maps. [source]
Atlas Geographique: Amerique du Nord; Amerique du Sud; Oceanie;Afrique; Asie; Europe et ses Chemins de fer; France et ses Chemins de fer.
Colorful cover showing animals, transportation, and people from each continent. Includes seven puzzle maps of the continents and France, each laid on a cardboard tray and stacked in a box with an elaborate, color view of people and scenes from around the world. AR Fremin made five of the maps and J Gaultier made two (published by Logerot, Paris in 1850). The date is estimated from the U.S. and Mexican boundary - the maps were probably originally engraved in the 1840's. [source]
Nellie Bly was the pseudonym for an extraordinary and innovative reporter named Elizabeth Jane Cochrane who worked for the New York World newspaper. After Jules Verne's 'Around the World in Eighty Days' became popular, Cochrane attempted her own world tour (completed in 72 days) and wrote a series of dispatches during the journey around which her employer built a hugely successful article series. Game maps were included with the stories so that the public could follow along at home. The episode gave rise to many world tour map games featuring Bly on the box cover (published up until the 1920s) and inspired entrepreneurs to bring out more variations on the geography game theme for an enthralled American audience.[see this illustrated 8Mb pdf, 'Around the World and across the Board: Nellie Bly and the Geography of Games' by Edlie L Long - seems to be (a) book chapter(s)?]The majority of commentary above is either quoted or paraphrased from the source sites.The array of images presented is neither exhaustive nor meant to be a serious review/sampling. Basically I'm giving up now without really discovering any of the Dutch, German and (no doubt) other versions of these fascinating items of historical ephemera. There is definitely a lot more material online but, as a few of the pictures above demonstrate, the image quality is not always optimal.Thanks very much to Jamie from the excellent Cartophilia site for providing some link assistance!There is a LOT to see and read in the following links if you dig around:- Boardgamegeek [games between 1600 + 1900]
- OldPuzzles.
- Icollectpuzzles.
- Puzzlehistory.
- European Society of Game-Collectors.
- Luding.
- Hordern / Games et al.
- Previously: Board Games and in general, cartography.
~1 year on
Stefan's shared items in Google Reader - One ThousandThe Best of BibliOdyssey [?]
- Industrial Anatomy
- Microgeology
- Atlas de Trudaine
- The Cherry Blossom Book
- Secret Rosicrucian Symbols
- Graphic Mercenary
- French Geology Maps
- Erik Nitsche Graphic Design
- Gero Codex
- Armour to Paper - On the Origins of Etching
- Remarkable Persons
- Aztec Mexico
- Pantagruel I
- Zoomorphic Calligraphy
- The Visual Context of Music
- Trouvelot Astronomy
- The Wood Book
- Otis Artbooks
- Flora Brasiliensis
- Yamamoto and the Sosaku Hanga
- Tradescant's Orchard
- Surinam Slave Trade
- Design Nouveau
- Ethiopian Manuscripts
- The Fugitive Beauties of Hexandria
- Printers' Ornaments
- Japanese Crepe Paper Fairytales
- Early Microscopes
- Dogs of War
- Alchemy Laboratories
- Parrots
- Roots and Trunks
- Original Winnie the Pooh Drawings
- The Jewel Book
- Burgkmair Tournament Book
This is entry number 1000 and in keeping with the centenary post tradition, I reiterate previous invitations for people to drop me a line with any link, genre, artist name or idea that they believe merits exploration on this site. Leave a comment or email me at peacay - gmail - dotcom. Thanks.~1 year on
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