Getting Lost with Hand Drawn Maps

A map to a 2008 election volunteer booth

I like to collect old road maps, and when the need arises for me to draw a map for a visiting friend or relative, I’ll admit I fancy myself a pretty good cartographer. But sometimes I find myself the artist of a bizarrely scaled and oddly detailed map which names all the trees, statues, and potholes in the vicinity but omits important details like street names.

After finding a map just like this in a trash can in Scotland, graphic designer Kris Harzinski became fascinated with finding and preserving maps drawn by hand. So he founded the Hand Drawn Map Association in order to collect the discarded drawings that he says “accidentally explore the importance of place, ephemera, and documentation” in our daily lives.

A map of Manhattan, drawn circa 1980

His website celebrates these unintentionally beautiful drawings, and gives them props for representing stories from people’s lives around the world. There is the young woman who maps the years since she left home to move to New York City. Or the map of the Istanbul Mountains seen from a plane enroute to Scotland. And the touching map of a young woman suffering arthritis who maps the medicinal injections she receives. The maps on the site are as remarkable and poignant as the stories of the people who drew them.

Some of the best maps from the collection have been compiled into a book, out next month. From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association features a wide variety from the collection, including some drawn by well-known historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Ernest Shackleton. While you’re waiting for the book to be published, visit HDMA’s website – an extremely pleasant place to get lost for a few hours.

- Britta Conroy-Randall

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