This globe map was one of 5 period-style maps commissioned for a family history photo book detailing a grandfather’s trip to Germany in 1897-1898. The grandather’s cross-Atlantic journey, as well as 3 side-trips he took in Germany were all fastidiously documented in his journal. 

This is the first map that appears in the book and shows the overall journey from his home in Bloomington, Indiana to his destination in Leipzig, Germany. The grandfather’s journal contained pages of detailed notes with times and locations of all train stops and transfers for this portion of the trip, so it felt fitting to include a timeline at the bottom of the map. Working first in QGIS, I created a custom spherical map projection centered over the Atlantic Ocean to really showcase the vastness of the ocean, as well as the total distance travelled. For the country borders, I used data from André Ourednik‘s historical opensource maps project (big shoutout!), where he has georeferenced historic country borders accurate to 1897. In QGIS I also georeferenced a turn-of-the-century shipping map so that I could match the steamship’s most likely route of travel. Then working in Adobe Illustrator, all map and timeline components were brought together and designed.

This map measures 15”w x 10”h printed and was designed to fold out from the book, with a quote from the grandfather’s journal on the “cover” of the fold-out page.