Earth in Two Dimensions

Albrecht Dürer to Agnes Denes: 100+ map projection illustrations and explainers (of various accuracies and precisions).

World map (cordiform, or heart-shaped, projection) | 1511

Treatise on Measurement (Dürer) | 1545

Mappemonde doublement cordiforme | 1525–1575

Projection de Mercator | 1572

Canovas lexo-dromique muet | 1600s

17 figures de planisphères, mappemondes et projections | 1600s

Sphère développée en quatre parties | 1720s

Geographia Generalis Seu Mathematica | 1723

A New Projection of the Western Hemisphere of the Earth on a Plane | 1776

Projection of the globe on the cylinder of a meridian | 1831

Globular Projection, Stereographic Projection, Orthographic Projection | 1835

The cube forms six squares placed together | 1836

Pribavleniye k zemnoy ploskosharyu | 1839

Mathematical geography | 1840

Oblate Spheroid. Sphere. Prolate Spheroid. | 1847

Map of the world on a polyconic development of the sphere | 1856

Projection synoptique cordiforme d’un globe terrestre trouvé à Laon, antérieur à la découverte de l’Amérique | 1860

Geometrical projection of two thirds of the sphere | 1860s

Geometrical projection of two thirds of the sphere | 1863

How The Sun sees “Great Britain, France, Holland, Denmark, &c.” at different times of year. | 1867

Parallax of an Object near the Eyes. | 1872

Balloon view—Provincetown to Boston | 1879

Octo-planisphère gnomonique | 1880

Land and Water Distribution | 1880

Projection équidistante | 1881

The centers of these circles are upon the axis… | 1882

Diagram illustrating the calculation of mean sphere level. | 1890

Method by which Globular Maps are projected. | 1893

Central Cylindrical Projection | 1895

The Earth as an “Orange” in Space. | 1895

The earth represented as a cylinder | 1895

Z-plane (A Quincuncial Projection of the Sphere) | 1896

[End paper] | 1897

Earth as a pear. | 1897

The star-shaped map | 1898

Central Meridian uɐᴉpᴉɹǝW lɐɹʇuǝƆ | 1901

Columbus [fisheye] | 1902

Birds-eye view from summit of Mt. Washington | 1902

This variation in measurements is also the worst drawback of Mercator’s map | 1903

Map of the world | 1905

Restoration of Toscanelli’s Map | 1907

Parallels | 1907

This proves the rotundity of the Earth. | 1908

It may be seen at once that some circular planes pass through the center of a globe. | 1908

Een en ander over kaartprojecties | 1909

Cahill butterfly projection | 1910

Carte aérienne. Projection cylindrique. | 1910

Schjernings Erdkarte 4 | 1912

Transverse Mollweide’s equal-area projection (close) | 1912

Fig. 7. | 1912

Projection of the sphere on the circumscribed cube. | 1912

The form toward which the the figure of the earth is tending, a tetrahedron with symmetrically truncated angles. | 1912

Bonne projection of hemisphere | 1918

A vertical in latitude 0° and a vertical in latitude 60°. | 1919

Collignon’s equal-area projection of the sphere | 1919

Mercator’s Principle | 1922

Figures 55 and 56 | 1922

The Tetrahedral Gnomonic Projection | 1925

Renner’s Hemispheric Projection | 1928

Compare the proportions of Greenland and South America on a globe and on a flat map and notice what a difference that makes! | 1932

If the paper cover of your school globe were removed carefully… | 1934

Ordinary or American polyconic projection of the entire sphere. | 1934

Patent filing | 1936

Figs 42–45 Man’s head… | 1938

Distortion of areas on Mercator’s projection | 1938

Le Monde. Représentation orthométrique à double projection. | 1942–1944

The map projection | 1942

Notes on Cylindrical World Map Projections | 1942

Obtaining a flat map | 1943

World | 1943

Air age octovue map of the world | 1943

Great circle airways | 1943

Maps are not true for all purposes | 1943

Global map for global war and global peace | 1943

Map projection device | 1943

Development of the Gingery Projection | 1943

Dymaxion Airocean World | 1943 [also]

The expansion the Mercator projection introduces in its scale of distance at high latitude | 1943

Parker’s flat-pole system | 1943

Equatorial azimuthal equidistant projection | 1944

Orienting map by inspection. | 1944

Orthographic projection oblique aspect | 1946

Most map projections are related to a cylinder, cone, or plane. | 1948

Diagrams showing development of respective projections and type and location of principal distortions. (All very highly exaggerated) | 1949

A Tetrahedral Gnomonic Projection | 1949

Map Projections Demonstrator | 1956

Projection: Changing a Globe Into a Flat Map | 1956

Hägerstrand’s logarithmic map. | 1957

Parallels (left) plus meridians (center) add up to the imaginary world-wide network (right). | 1959

SAS Spiral Projection | 1960

Conformal world map in an oval frame without projection | 1961

Schematic illustration of map projections | 1962

An illuminated flask with a grid pattern, simulating the parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude projected… | 1963

Equal area projection shows how two areas compare in size. | 1964

Central projection of a globe upon a cylinder, and subsequently modified map-structure… | 1964

Cylinder tangent at the equator | 1967

A Map Projection | 1967

Venn diagram showing the relationship between the basic subdivisions in the systems for classification of map projections. | 1967

Various map projections | 1970

The Projection of the ICA Flag. | 1971

Isolines of the magnitudes of angular deformation plotted on the graticule of the projection in conventional orientation, i.e. “centered” on the equator. | 1971

Perspective cosmographique équatoriales | 1971

Full Disk Earth, Apollo 17 | 1972

A Polar equal-area map of the world | 1973

Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space: Map Projections — The Hot Dog | 1974

Fict. pole on 80W | 1975

Map Emphasizing Southeastern Michigan | 1975

Stereographic projection of spherical triangles associated with the regular icosahedron. | 1976

Projection Process | 1977

Conformal and Equiareal World Maps | 1979

Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space-Map Projections: The Doughnut | 1980

Division of the Global Area into 100 Equal Cells | 1981

A variety of map projections | 1982

Two orbits of the space oblique mercator projection, shown for Landsat.| 1982

Maps | 1984

Oblique Azimuthal Equidistant Projection centered on Chernobyl. | 1986

Computer generated oblique view | 1986

Stereographic projection, polar view | 1987

Tilted perspective projection. | 1987

Electronic global map generating system | 1987

Loximuthal projection | 1989

Groucho Marx | 1989

Sanson’s Sinusoidal | 1990

Map projection system | 1991

Map abstraction process | 1992

Lambert conformal conic. | 1994

Circuit diagram map, simplified shape map, spooky map | 1994

Many people have an incorrect idea of how Mercator’s projection works. How NOT to do it. | 2003

The world turned upside down | 2005

Equal earth | 2018