1. bioephemera
  2. Those bloody Great Lakes! Anatomical/cartographical mashup, circa 1889

Those bloody Great Lakes! Anatomical/cartographical mashup, circa 1889

By bioephemera on May 17, 2009.
i-5805189b3d8c230fc18597f653202217-man_commerce.jpg

Another fabulously weird map, from the great blog Strange Maps. This one is entitled "The Man of Commerce" and dates to 1889.

According to the American Geographical Society Library,

The highly detailed 31" x 50" map/chart conflates human anatomy with the American transportation system, in an apparent attempt to promote Superior as a transportation hub.

Its metaphor makes West Superior "the center of cardiac or heart circulation"; the railways become major arteries; and New York is "the umbilicus through which this man of commerce was developed."

The explanatory notes conclude: "It is an interesting fact that in no other portion of the known world can any such analogy be found between the natural and artificial channels of commerce and circulatory and digestive apparatus of man."

Actually, I think you could probably make this kind of bizarre analogy with most countries, by pairing the right anatomical systems with the right transportation systems. It's not like there are no functional parallels between the two types of network.

Wait, is Commerce Man standing on Europe and Africa? Dude, that's not nice! (I think he may also be about to smack Wasilla, Alaska).

Tags
Artists & Art
ephemera
Maps
Medical Illustration and History
Museum Lust
Science in Culture & Policy
Yikes!
anatomy
circulatory
Heart
Lakes
map
physiology
superior
vintage
ephemera
Maps
Categories
Social Sciences

More like this

Evolution of vascular systems
Once upon a time, in Paris in 1830, Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire debated Georges Léopole Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert, Baron Cuvier on the subject of the unity of organismal form. Geoffroy favored the idea of a deep homology, that all animals shared a common archetype: invertebrates with their…
Prefrontal Organization: Attentional Networks for Filtering and Orienting
The organization of the human prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a lasting mystery in cognitive neuroscience, but not for lack of answers - the issue is deciding among them, since all seem to characterize prefrontal function in very different but apparently equally-valid ways. If this mystery were…
Since October is a Celebration of Many Health-Related Causes, Let's Think A Moment About This: The Development of Noninvasive Heart Care - Part I
Fifty-two years ago the average American home cost $30,000, Elvis Presley wooed listeners with Hard Headed Woman, and the hula-hoop was introduced. That same year, 1958, a team comprised of a groundbreaking engineer -- Dean Franklin -- in concert with two exceptional physicians -- Drs. Robert…
Physiology: Coordinated Response
This is the last in the 16-post series of BIO101 lecture notes for a speed-course targeted at adults. As always, I welcome corrections and suggestions for improvement (June 17, 2006)... -------------------------------------- Last week we looked at the organ systems involved in regulation and…

I bet commerce man is in a rather foul mood, what with his genitals having the grand choice of immersion in the ocean or mounting the pointy end of the north-east.

You know, it would have probably been better if they could have made it look less like a chalk outline. "Well, Commerce Man did take in a lot of fat... we should have seen this coming".

Actually, having the figure of American commerce stepping on Africa kind of makes sense with regard to the slave trade...

I'm living near his lower elbow, whatever that means. And Texas is roughly in his armpit.