Map, Worldmapper Project: Global Internet Use 1990 and 2007

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See more objects with the tag communication, graphic design, multicolored, brightly colored, bold, computing, statistics, mapping.

Object Timeline

2007	Work on this object began.
2009	We photographed this object.
2012	We acquired this object.
2013	This was an Object of the Day.
2015	We photographed this object.
2017	We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

Map, Worldmapper Project: Global Internet Use 1990 and 2007

This is a Map. It is dated 2007 and we acquired it in 2012. Its medium is digital print on archival paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

The field of information graphics has added a new dimension to contemporary graphic design. The Worldmapper project, which was featured in the museum’s 2010 National Design Triennial, Why Design Now?, enables an expansive mapping system. It was invented by a group of geographers from the Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group at the University of Sheffield, England (Dan Dorling, Graham Allsopp, Anna Barford, Benjamin Wheeler, and John Pritchard), with the assistance of Mark Newman, a physicist from the University of Michigan. The Worldmapper system is able to convert statistical information into an easy to understand colored map (known as a cartogram or a density equalizing map) in which countries change their size and shape according to the variable being measured. More than 400 different maps have been created at the time of proposed acquisition.
This project is particularly relevant to the museum, as it documents the global population's interaction with contemporary design technology. The map is aesthetically beautiful as an ethereal and graceful graphic design object, and also relates to a series of information graphic posters by the Dutch firm Catalogtree in the museum’s collection.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A cartogram of global internet use.

It is credited Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.

Book, Bauentwurfslehre (Architects’ Data)

Book, Bauentwurfslehre (Architects’ Data)
offset lithograph.
Courtesy of anonymous lender.
15.2013.1

Poster, Prototype for New York City Subway Map

Poster, Prototype for New York City Subway Map
offset lithograph on white wove paper.
Gift of Unknown Donor.
1987-24-1

Vertical format New York City subway transit map depicting subway lines throughout the borroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. The key to reading the map is in a horizontal margin at the top. Rivers and other bodies of water are indicated in light tan, land is indicated in white and the major parks are indicated in brown. The subway lines are orange, red, cyan, magenta, black, yellow, blue and green. A small black compass can be found in the bottom left corner.

Poster, New York City Subway Map
offset lithograph on white wove paper.
Gift of Unknown Donor.
1987-24-2

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

A screenprint on paper poster illustrating a map of the Great Lakes region in the United States. The state of Michigan is red, Wisconsin is orange, Canada is yellow and the Great Lakes themselves are blue. Black text at the top states [DICK VANDERVEEN for United States Senate], with the designer's name in capital letters.

Poster, Dick VanderVeen for United States Senate
screenprint on paper.
Gift of Various Donors.
1981-29-43

Horizontal drawing on graph paper with blue grid background and a bold black outline of the Switzerland at lower right. Four planets of differing sizes are seen above with different colored land masses (pink, grey, yellow, and orange) with dots in each center connected to lines that lead to a color key chart, at lower left and the map at lower right. Tangential pairs of parallel lines hug sides of each planet directed downwards to the lower right-hand corner, in corresponding colors to the planets, and connect to matching sized circle outlines overlapping the shape of Switzerland, which creates a bullseye target shape. The cosmos is indicated behind the planets in blue and black, and scattered stars are depicted in graphite and blue color pencil.

Drawing, Map of Switzerland with Planets and Stars
color pencil, graphite, and pen and black ink on cream graph paper; verso:....
Museum purchase with funding provided by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A.....
2016-54-507

Book, Atlas of the Celestial Heavens
engraving on paper.
Gift of Unknown Donor.
1980-32-1354

Its dimensions are

101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)

Cite this object as

Map, Worldmapper Project: Global Internet Use 1990 and 2007; digital print on archival paper; 101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.); Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2012-19-1

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2EcGF/
Accession Number 2012-19-1
Object ID 18770115