{"id":1838747,"date":"2025-03-31T13:13:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T17:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1838747"},"modified":"2025-03-31T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T17:13:59","slug":"the-boy-who-couldnt-get-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/the-boy-who-couldnt-get-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boy Who Couldn\u2019t Get Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today is The Map Room\u2019s 22nd anniversary. It\u2019s also the final day of its membership drive<\/a>, which as of the time of this writing is just three members short of the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mark those occasions, I\u2019ve written something as an exclusive for those members: The Boy Who Couldn\u2019t Get Lost<\/strong><\/a>, an essay about the origins of my rather personal relationship with maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Looking back, it seems clear that I have always had an obsession with knowing exactly where I was, at all times. No trip would be undertaken without having a map of the destination, even when I was a child. Every time I\u2019d go to a summer camp, I\u2019d have made a map of the grounds by the time I was done. And even into adulthood, not having a map of where I was made me very, very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Also features dragons. Again, you\u2019ll need to be a paid member to read the essay. And if we reach the target, paid members will also get access to my presentation on fantasy map design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is The Map Room\u2019s 22nd anniversary. It\u2019s also the final day of its membership drive, which as of the time of this writing is just three members short of the goal. To mark those… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,960],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-housekeeping","category-my-stuff","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1815360,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/06\/the-lost-art-of-map-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":0},"title":"The Lost Art of Map Reading","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 June 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"\u201cThe physical map has the same appeal, probably, as the vinyl record. It\u2019s tactile, it\u2019s there, it\u2019s present\u2014it\u2019s not ephemeral.\u201d A nice piece from CBC News on the so-called lost art of map reading and paper maps, touching many of the usual points, featuring (among others) the co-owners of my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2016,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/05\/the-universal-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":1},"title":"The Universal Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 May 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"If the attempts by India, China and other countries to control how they're mapped seem like a throwback to an earlier age, it's probably because they are: last September Justin O'Beirne looked at\u00a0the recent, rapid changes in cartography and\u00a0came to the realization that, thanks to the ubiquity and accessibility of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5243,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2011\/09\/the-farthing-party-map-panel\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":2},"title":"The Farthing Party Map Panel","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 September 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Farthing Party map panel (see previous entry) came off surprisingly well. I was actually shocked to discover that what I thought were my controversial thoughts about maps were actually not that controversial: I knew it was going to be a good panel when both Lila and Emmet said in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":626,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/lost-cornish-map-rediscovered\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":3},"title":"Lost Cornish Map Rediscovered","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"A seventeenth-century map of Falmouth, Cornwall lost for more than a century has turned up in the private collection of a local historian who died last June. Created by George Withiell in 1690, the map, titled\u00a0A True Map of all Sir Peter Killigrew's Lands in the Parish of Mylor and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1344,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/the-tube-map-of-lost-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":4},"title":"The Tube Map of Lost London","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Londonist: \"This is the tube map of Lost London, showing buildings, shops and physical features that were once well known but have now faded into history.\" [via]","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lost-tube","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lost-tube-1024x664.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lost-tube-1024x664.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lost-tube-1024x664.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lost-tube-1024x664.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1808875,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/09\/the-gough-map-and-the-lost-islands-of-cardigan-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838747,"position":5},"title":"The Gough Map and the Lost Islands of Cardigan Bay","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 September 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"A paper in Atlantic Geoscience is basically arguing that the Gough Map offers evidence that the Welsh legend of the sunken kingdom of Cantre\u2019r Gwaelod \u2014a sort of Welsh Atlantis\u2014is real. Actually, no. Not quite. That\u2019s clickbait\u2014and the headline for the BBC News story about the study. In their paper,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gough Map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/gough-map-300x148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838749,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838747\/revisions\/1838749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}