The Mysteries of the First-Ever Map of the North Pole

Atlas Obscura ^ | February 27, 2017 | Cara Giaimo

[laplata]

DOGE needs to look at every active federal grant on the books.

I bet it’s more obscene than we can imagine.

><

Yes and yes. I’d bet it’s exceedingly obscene.

[philman_36]

Problems, problems. Trust the Science.

[bIlluminati]

The 1909 travelers claimed to have reached the North Pole, but it seems unlikely. Very uneven terrain, open sea in several places, and the claimed speed was 30% faster than later explorers managed, up until they hit open sea and were forced to return to base.

[Beowulf9]

Gosh that must drive the Pygmies crazy!

[Beowulf9]

There was a time when I hoped to buy an original antique map with one of those paintings on it of sea serpents and stuff.

Before I found out how hard to get something like that was that is.

[Inyo-Mono]

Th one on the Left was produced in 1606. Yet it appears to show Hudson’s Bay in What is now Canada. Hudson’s Bay wasn’t discovered until 1611...............

And California where Alaska is today.

[edwinland]

Great article. Thanks for all you do to keep FR interesting. I’ve read a lot of your posts this year. Merry Christmas and keep it going in 2025!

[Cold Heart]

Get a replica. Of course the price on some of those will make you think you are buying the real thing. Also some of the 1930’s to 80’s charts are available online. My grandson was very interested in charts and maps. I bought him a globe and a replica.

[MikelTackNailer]

On the Donald says it is an "absolute necessity" the US purchases Greenland thread I saw a minimap at post #27 showing:

1.North Pole

2.North Magnetic Pole, and

3.Pole of Inaccessibility.

Which is an entirely new one on me. Turns out to just be the remotest point from anything else just a few hundred miles from the others.

But learned the ANT-Arctic version of this point sports a statue of Vladimir Lenin courtesy of the old USSR.

The perfect polyp on the sphincter of the world.

[rxh4n1]

“Yet it appears to show Hudson’s Bay in What is now Canada.”

Vikings?

[Beowulf9]

I’m an artist. I wanted to own the actual painting.

[Red Badger]

Yes I considered that as well.......

[Moltke]

In order to make his map useful for navigation, though, Mercator had to sacrifice accuracy in other areas—specifically, he had to stretch out the top and bottom parts of his map, making the lands and seas in the far North and South appear disproportionately larger than those nearer the equator. (This is also why so many people think Africa is the same size as Greenland, when it is really about 14 times bigger—the Mercator projection is still very common in schools.)

Another thing I would really recommend is to teach children early (and adults who never had a clue) about the real scales of our own solar system. Mostly the planets are shown close together and close to the sun. Like here:

The reality of the sizes and especially the vast distances of empty space is stunning (and humbling, IMO).

https://solartoscale.com/ (vertical)

http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/ (horizontal)

Merry Christmas!