The Imperiia ProjectMain MenuResearch Dashboardsmaps, visualizations, and moreVeles: The Data CatalogOngoing ProjectsThe MapMaker PodcastEvery story starts somewhere.Teach with MapsGalleriesKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
detail from Adams' Illustrated Panorama of History, 1878
12018-01-31T02:13:07-05:00Stories106What if the map isn't just telling a story? What if the map is the story?visual_path2025-03-17T13:42:52-04:00
Maps do not tell stories in the same way books do. The stories maps tell seem - to the untrained eye - to lack beginnings and endings. Characters. Plot lines. Some people even say that maps are just objective representations of places - that they do not tell stories at all.
But the truth is that within the neatline of any map there is intrigue and drama and nuance and, sometimes, even a grandiose, sweeping view of the world. Every map tells a story. You just have to know where to look.
Each of these projects sketches the story (or stories) told by a single map (or set of maps). Sometimes it is a matter of putting things together, and sometimes it is a matter of pulling them apart. You will see.
