Historical Maps
Of all the different types of maps in existence, historical maps seem to catch the imagination more readily and hold it longer than most other types of maps. Since historical maps require the viewer to understand a story rather than just to see geographical features, it makes sense that the average person would be drawn to a map depicting an ancient country or a long ago battle than a contemporary Florida Wall Map .
There are basically two types of historical maps. The first are true antiques. These are maps that were made in the past to represent an area the way it was at the time. The best way to think about these is to realize that the Texas Wall Map hanging in den in Houston will one day be considered a historical or antique map by collectors in the future.
The other type of historical maps are those that are created after a major event is past. A map will be made to represent the event geographically. A good example of this is all the maps of battlefields or routes of explorers that are part of classroom textbooks. Newspapers and tv news programs are great at creating instant historic maps as they report on events that just happened and use various maps as visual aids.
Both types of historical maps are essential to get a full understanding of the past. Both types of maps require that the view create a story of historical context for the event or time depicted, even if it is just a story of evolution from what happened then to where the world is now.