Brilliant!

A map of the University and city from 1751, much of it still recognisable today! 🗺️ Shelmark: Bodleian Library, Gough Maps Oxfordshire 12

Reindeer appear in more places than you might expect... including maps! These festive friends are watching mapmakers at work, decorating historic landscapes as well as popping up in modern tourist and children’s maps.🎄 Read more: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2024/12/18/looks-like-reindeer/

Big thanks to The Scarborough News for their article on our upcoming historical map of Scarborough. If you'd like to donate to the project, you can do so here: shop.historictownstrust.uk/product/donate

cycle.travel now has a fresh new look on iPhone and Android – clearer, easier to use, and with new features such as clickable route highlights. Take a look on your app store of choice! iPhone: apps.apple.com/app/id161963... Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Today marks the #WinterSolstice ❄️ This illustrated page, ‘Erde und Sonne’, from a German atlas by Justus Perthes (c.1910), shows how Earth’s tilt and orbit create the solstices, equinoxes and seasons. 📜 | Bodleian Map Room Blog More at: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2024/03/19/spring/

Delighted to be continuing as a research assistant on the London on the Eve of the Great Fire project. To support the creation of this Atlas and Gazetteer of 1665-6 London then consider a donation to the project. @historictownstrust.bsky.social 🗃️ shop.historictownstrust.uk/product/donate

Our next @bodleian.ox.ac.uk #Maps blog takes us to a wintry C18 #Norway with @debbietheduck.bsky.social. JB Homann's map of #Akershus also takes us underground. Explore detailed mine workings nearby modern #Oslo. blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2025/12... @bcsmaps.bsky.social @imagomundi.bsky.social

Today is International Mountain Day. Here are covers for Snowdon (1,085 metres), for a Soviet map of the Teberda region of the Caucasus mountains (over 4000 m in places) and of the Zermatt region of Switzerland with the Matterhorn, 4,478 m, on the cover. Happy climbing everyone. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Thank you to Caroline Gomm from HarperCollins who presented the Collins Bartholomew award, and to Jim Goldsmith, BCS Awards officer, who presented the Stanfords award. Our BCS President Paul Naylor then presented the overall “Best of the Best” BCS Award to the recipients.

@bodleian.ox.ac.uk #Maps team delighted to host our friends from @bcsmaps.bsky.social & @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social today. Should be a great afternoon. @stanfordstravel.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social

Deadline approaching for the ISHMap Prize for Projects in Map History. In 2024 or 2025, did you participate in a neat map history project that wasn't a book or an article? Submit it for a shiny prize!! Nominations due 31 Dec 2025. #maps #maphistory #skystorians #GIS 🗃️

A grim 'X marks the spot'. Wilson is Major Allan Wilson, who led a small unit of British South African soldiers in the 1st Matabele War. On the 3rd and 4th of December 1893 they came up against a much larger force of Matabele warriors along the Shangani River, in modern Zimbabwe. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Impressive new official UK online railway map. Appears to be vector tiles, Maplibre JS, manual selection of stations for each zoom level, hints for label placement baked into the tiles. No authorship information that I can see, but someone deserves plaudits for this. railmap.nationalrail.co.uk

Here's an interesting variation on D.I.Y. From a map of Europe at the start of the War, 1914, an invitation from the Financial Times to fill in boundaries based on predicted peace terms. Offered at a time when 'it will be all over by Christmas' I wonder if anyone got even close? @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Our next @bodleian.ox.ac.uk #maps blog by @stuartackland.bsky.social features the "false" map of #Oxford from 1644. Look at this and be prepared to be confused! blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/. When is north not north? And who was Anthony Wood? @bcsmaps.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk @bbcoxford.bsky.social

RIP Jimmy Cliff, musical titan, reggae giant, who also wrote and sang this, the unofficial anthem to audax cycling. For me it has to be the rarer, R&B arrangement. @audaxuk.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zs...

Thursday at 16:30 (UK time) - our 1st online #TOSCA of 25/26: @drpragyaagarwal.bsky.social on 'Mapping sense of place: Travels and Maps of May Morris'. Book your place at: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/tosca. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk @oxfordgeography.bsky.social @bcsmaps.bsky.social @imagomundi.bsky.social

👀🙌 "6,652 maps associated with the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain (ca. 1958-1974)... primarily 1:10,560 National Grid sheets, were hand annotated with different colours, shadings and abbreviations to indicate land use, such as arable, settlement, industrial, grassland or woodland."

Our article on #Mapathon 1571 is now online at the Leventhal Map & Education Center! 👉 www.leventhalmap.org/articles/map... This publication was made possible through the Allmaps Research Fellowships. Thanks to my co-authors at #GhentCDH and #Allmaps, and @bplmaps.bsky.social for the support.

We're delighted to introduce our brand new tote bag! We've partnered with the excellent folks at Teemill to create a premium quality bag made from 100% sustainable organic cotton. What better way to look stylish and promote your local heritage? Order online shop.historictownstrust.uk/product/htt-...

It's not raining inside TripelB! #belgianfrites #baconbaguette #bitterballen #frikandel #coffee #belgianbeer #belgianbeercafe #worcestershirehour #stormclaudia

There is still time to apply for one of our 50+ Visiting Fellowships @bodleian.ox.ac.uk for the 2026-27 academic year! A vibrant interdisciplinary research centre in the heart of one of the world’s great libraries!

Mapping Identities Conference 9/02/26-10/02/26 Call for Papers. We warmly invite expressions of interest in the form of 250-word abstracts and 100-word short biographies Wednesday 17/12/25 tinyurl.com/3nnacccd

Last chance! Abstracts due tomorrow for the International Conference on the History of Cartography! #cfp #ichc2026 #skystorians #maps 🗃️

WRFM, the local radio station formerly known as Witney Radio, will be heard on digital radio (DAB) in West Oxfordshire after winning a licence from Ofcom. The station already has FM licences in West Oxfordshire and DAB in Oxford city.

Come along to see Livingmapper @mikeduggan4.bsky.social chair a panel discussion on the question of 'who controls the map' at @britishlibrary.bsky.social events.bl.uk/events/onlin...

A different sort of commute today ... The rim split on my front wheel, a 4-mile walk from the nearest train station. Thanks to @gwr.com for getting me to work and @blenheimpalace.bsky.social for a scenic walk.

Our YouTube channel has beefed up for the winter! You can now watch lots of brilliant talks about mapmaking and the history of Britain's towns and cities. Please subscribe here: www.youtube.com/@hist_towns

📣📣 PRIZE 📣📣 The International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap) is pleased to invite nominations and self-nominations for its Prize for Projects in Map History. Details: ishmap.com/prize-for-pr... @kparkerhistorian.bsky.social

Don’t forget to submit your proposals for #ichc2026! Who wouldn’t want to talk about #maps in Prague? Abstracts due 14 November! #skystorians 🗃️

We finished the day with stories and insights from Felicity Aston and Phoebe Smith, two contemporary explorers who use and think about #maps a lot. What a great day! Thanks to all attended @rgsibg.bsky.social and online!

The Challenging Maps & Exploration symposium is in full swing! We started with maps & empire & are now discussing Indigeneity, archives, & mapping. Michael Bravo just asked, “How do we listen to maps?” Just one of many provocative questions that drive today’s conversations. #maps #skystorians 🗃️

Lots going on in this picture from a Dutch sea atlas, 1676. Figures point cross-staffs to a sea-torch, symbolizing navigation, others measure maps and globes with compasses. A sailor holds a sounding weight to measure depths and a navigator a marine astrolabe to measure latitude @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Secret Maps opens today! 🤫 🗺️ From medieval manuscripts to Cold War espionage, our new exhibition explores how maps have hidden as much as they revealed for over 600 years. Book now: bit.ly/BLSecretMaps

Our next season for The Oxford Seminars in Cartography ... #TOSCA @bodleian.ox.ac.uk @oxfordgeography.bsky.social Register at: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/tosca More info at: www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/tosca @bcsmaps.bsky.social @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social 1st speaker is @drpragyaagarwal.bsky.social

Cronos, Greek god of death and time (hence the scythe and hourglass) and Hercules (in one of his labours, capturing the multi-headed dog Cerberus) either side of an armillary sphere in a 1663 Blaeu atlas of Asia. On the next page Hercules opens a door onto the continent @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Definitely "nice to look at". Another @bodleian.ox.ac.uk #Maps blog by @debbietheduck.bsky.social looks at a recently-discovered letter accompanying Bryant's stunning 1824 map of #Oxfordshire. A great endorsement of @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social mapping too. Go to: blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/

Café ride to test the upcoming version of the cycle.travel app ☕️

'Close's fisherman's chart', c1922, has some beautifully poetic descriptions of fishing grounds and trawling sites, along with a timeline of U-Boats captured or destroyed in the channel during the First World War, including this piece about the activities of Skipper Tom Phillips @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Are you using #maps in research? Want to learn about their history and use as sources? In London in late January? Sign up for @ihr.bsky.social short course, Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place! #maphistory #skystorians 🗃️

We’re so proud of our trustee, Bob Allies.

👋🏻 Hey Students! We get it, navigating career decisions in the cartographic sphere can be tricky. But we've got you... We're hosting an online Careers Talk, FREE for Student Members, feat. inspiring talks from 4 cartographic professionals (including the brilliant Hannah!). Check your inbox to sign-up

We’re at the @balhnews.bsky.social Herts. Beds. and Bucks. conference today. Do come and say hello!

The pedestrianised Market Street, Hinksey’s Little Wheels and Wet Play Park, restoration of Christ Church Cathedral Tower and Oxford Brookes’ “Edible Streets” project are among the shortlisted entries for Oxford Preservation Trust’s 2025 awards. Winners will be announced on 12 November.

New on CollectionsCaptured is a wonderfully illustrated set of 17 proof copies of early 17th Century maps, later included in John Speed's 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine'. All 17 pages can be seen here on CollectionsCaptured: collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll... [Ref. Freinds/JSM]

Time for the next @bodleian.ox.ac.uk #Maps blog from @stuartackland.bsky.social taking us back to the First World War & a close look at trench maps. What are these unusual numbered circles? Learn more at: blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/ @bcsmaps.bsky.social @westernfrontww1.bsky.social

In our editorial introduction (free to all to read!) we lay out our decolonial approach and why we won’t define “Indigenous” or “maps and mapping” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Issue 77.1 of @imagomundi.bsky.social is out! I co-edited this issue on Indigenous maps and mapping with Natchee Blu Barnd. Articles cover topics in North America, Africa, and Hawai’i. #newissue #histcart #maphistory #skystorians 🗃️

Happy birthday to us! 🥳 HUGE thanks for celebrating us being in our 7th year, at our banging birthday party. Thanks to your support, we’ve managed to achieve more over the last 6 years than we can write on Bluesky! (You'll have to look on Facebook or Instagram!) #worcestershirehour