Map Festival

On Saturday I woke up at 8am for the frst time in 10 years for the map field trip. The trip was cool, a little skeptical on the route we took to Baltimore (all the way around the beltway in one day)i guess 395 - 295 was no good... we had a nice debate on the route hed take in the back of the bus, but still nice to go on a long trip where i am not driving.

The map part of the museum was actually pretty small. Alot smaller than i imagined. The floor that did have maps on it had a nice blend of mostly historical maps. I remember seeing colonial america maps of what the states looked like before they took their present shape, a map of the ridges and drop offs in the Atlantic Ocean, maps of England, and their was a map of some country (forget which one) that was in the shape of a lion... i believe i saw something like it in Seminar Class.. and some oriental maps that look more hand made than the others, and a big lay out of a village in europe that had no label for what it was... some of the maps i remembered from slides in class and the time when Dr. Falconer showed the seminar class his book of maps.. I just felt that I had seen a few of them..

The map that really stood out to me and the only one i remember in great detail was the civil war map they had on the computer that looked strikingly simular to the invasion of Russia map we did in a previous lab. The map looked like it used shape tween but not motion tween because their were no armies running around the map. Only the polygon moved! Another difference with that map was the pop ups that came up on it like the one that said Lincoln died. So it took the Russia map to another level.

The museum was more than just maps so i got to see some nice art upstairs.. I appreciated the religous art that reminded me of a time when i was in catholic school and had that kinda art all around me. My favorite was the timeline of the crucifixtion one that was really well done. Some might call it Stations of the Cross. But because this was spose to be about the maps i wont go into too much detail about that.

The last thing of note was the room of globes... which was actually just 2 gigantic globes... one was very historical, and another one was very confusing with PEOPLE and animals on it, not very geographic... i liked the globes... wished their were more... but it was all good... and apparently someone got yelled at for taking pictures which i didnt understand but it was explained to me that the flash from the camera makes the paint run... and alot of museums are doing that now... , so i guess thats understandable.

Overall it was a good trip and a nice museum