Carte de visite

“ At last the man prosecuting inquiries found himself in the Globe public-house in Wapping, the landlady of which hostelry at once declared the carte de visite to be a portrait of a mysterious individual of huge bulk who had visited her on the night of the previous Christmas day, stayed an hour in her parlour, and made numerous inquiries after old inhabitants of Wapping. ”

“ There were thousands of Parisians promenading the streets at the time. The news spread like wild-fire, but no panic, nor even undue excitement, ensued; the people of Paris are totally different to-day from what they were in 1870. Of course the intention of these aeroplane bomb-throwers, of whose exploits we shall probably hear a great deal, was to create a panic and demoralize the inhabitants, and especially to terrify women and children. This utterly failed. After dropping the three bombs and his carte de visite, the German aeroplane vanished towards the east. ”

“ It is the same difference as between a mirror and an average photographer's portrait: the mirror may show us all our faults and yet, if we have any beauty, it does not belie us; while we know how often the ordinary commercial carte-de-visite is unreliable. ”

“ The best museum practice demands that only such facts as cannot be discovered in the photograph be entered on the card. Some museums enter the name of the dealer from whom an object is bought and the price paid, on the accession cards. This material has its proper place in the accessions book but should not be accessible to the public. The card catalogue, like the catalogues of a library, should be such that a competent student might consult it at his leisure. ”

“ To the traveller of a generation ago this meant nothing, but it means a good deal to the present age.
As for general maps of France, the Carte de l’Etat-Major (scale of 80,000, on which one measures distances of two kilometres by the diametre of a sou) are to be bought everywhere at thirty centimes per quarter-sheet. The Carte du Service Vicinal, on the scale of 100,000 and printed in five colours, costs eighty centimes per sheet; and that of the Service Géographique de l’Armée (reduced by lithography from the scale of 80,000) costs one franc fifty centimes per sheet. ”

“ It chanced that I had to use a foreign dictionary, whose place was on the other side of the room. I rose, leaving my papers in my place, and was absent perhaps ten minutes. To those of my readers who have never seen the Museum Library I must explain, that the double rows of seats radiate from the centre, where are the catalogues, to the circumference, where are the books of reference. These latter are under a slightly projecting gallery. It will be evident that there is less light, but more quiet, in the seats near the wall. Passers-by are most frequent in the neighbourhood of the catalogues. ”

“ There is no lane, bridle-path, road, farmhouse, pot-house, or farrier's which is not clearly marked in these sectional maps. The prospective tourist—who is most frequently a minor departmental official—is handed one or more of them on the understanding that if he can improve upon their topographical value in the smallest particulars, he will benefit to the extent of a hundred marks or so. ”

“ A city map should note beside streets, the car lines or bus lines, public buildings, library, churches, hotels, stores, police station, public telephone booths, a doctor's office, fire alarm box and post box. ”

“ I have always been fond of maps, and can voyage in an atlas with the greatest enjoyment. The names of places are singularly inviting; the contour of coasts and rivers is enthralling to the eye; and to hit, in a map, upon some place you have heard of before, makes history a new possession. ”

“ The coaches, cars, and roads, too, have become excellent, and the hotels are sufficient for any reasonable traveller. One very marked discouragement to travelling was the want of information; the maps were little daubs, and the guide-books were few and inaccurate. As to maps we are now splendidly off. The Railway Commissioners' Map of Ireland, aided by the Ordnance Index Map of any county where a visitor makes a long stay, are ample. ”

“ Commercial considerations are not to be overlooked; cheap and rapid methods of reproduction bring their temptations as well as their advantages to bear upon cartography. Their advantages are manifest; the map, whether as an adjunct to travel or as a graphic illustration of a great variety of subjects, has become a commodity of almost daily use. But in some countries, such as the United States, the standard of cartography generally is as low as that of the maps of the survey is high. ”

“ It saves them much time, and often prevents mistakes. These maps may be obtained of most reliable stationers, and they take up very little space. There are times, during the journey, when their help is well nigh invaluable; and a map is nearly always a safer guide than a native. ”

“ The great value of the modern topographical map is becoming, however, universally acknowledged, and every highly civilized nation has either completed or has in preparation sectional topographical maps of its domain on such a scale as is warranted by its financial condition and its state of development. Thus there is now being accumulated a vast library of geographical and to some extent geological information, of which the student of geology must be prepared to make use. ”

“ Throughout the whole work, a series of Maps and Charts will be inserted in their proper places, carefully selected and constructed for the purpose of illustrating the various Voyages and Travels. At the close of the whole, a complete Index will be given to the entire series of volumes, so arranged as to form a regular Gazetteer of the whole world. ”

“ Each of the three distances of each of the three compartments should be made to show the objects conspicuous to the eye from the summit of the Rigi, and those, too, which though not conspicuous, are yet of sufficient interest to be worthy of notice. With such a map before you, you would almost be able to construct, and put together, the view for yourself. He alone understands a scene, who has in his mind distinct images of all its parts, and of the relation of each to its environment. ”

“ Painting the openings of letters in different colors is an excellent practice, and as the sight improves the size of the letters can be reduced. Map drawing and the study of maps is a good thing, and can be easily adapted to the state of the vision. With a map of the United States a child can begin by picking out all the states of a particular color, and as its sight improves it can pick out the rivers and cities. In drawing maps it can proceed in the same way, beginning with the outlines of countries or states, and with improved vision putting in the details. ”

“ The visits paid by the small fry of society to the great fish involve nothing more than inscription of one's name in a book or the deposit of one's card in a basket. It is impossible to conceive anything colder and more conventional. Often even the formality of a servant to receive the names of the callers is dispensed with: the visitor finds an untenanted vestibule, a receptacle for cards, and a name-book. ”

“ The best maps should always be sought for: And, the true economy to the traveller being that which saves time, it is best to mark, or even colour the map, in the field. Notes inserted on imperfect maps, or deduced afterwards from memoranda, are less authentic ”

“ As a work of art, graphically delineating the configuration of a district of surpassing beauty and variety of scenery, it will, perhaps, possess greater interest to the ordinary observer than any scientific value of accuracy and completeness could give it. If a person were called upon to construct an ideal map which should group together specimens of all types of topographical form and the conventional signs known to the draughtsman, he could hardly derive from his imagination a chart more comprehensive than this. ”

“ The ‘body of geography’ contained in the Georgian Library has never, I think, been surpassed in any one Collection (made by a single Collector) in the world. It laid, substantially, the foundation of the noble assemblage of charts and maps which now forms a separate Department of the Museum, under the able superintendence of Mr. Richard Henry Major, who has done much for the advancement of geographical knowledge in many paths, but in none more efficiently than in his Museum labours. ”

“ The Society’s map is of primary interest as revealing a conception of the earth’s surface typical of the century preceding the discovery of America. In its blending of colors and pleasing general composition it forms a work of art of no slight decorative value. Furthermore, the encircling calendar and many details on the map proper are distinctly unusual. [5] The Society has therefore undertaken the publication of a full-sized colored facsimile, in explanation of which the present book was prepared. Drawn on a piece of parchment measuring 281⁄2 by 233⁄8 inches (72.4 × 59.4 cm.) ”

“ The habit of locating the events recorded, of tracing upon the map the route of an army, or the line of an important road or canal, and observing the impediments or natural obstructions to be overcome, with the great advantages to be derived therefrom, together with inferences as to the time and labor required, has the effect of making the study of history of living interest, especially if the map used indicates such surface structure. ”

“ The photographic mapping of some of our Western States will be greatly facilitated by the 100-yard squares into which the land is divided and already marked in a manner which shows clearly in aerial photographs. ”

“ An important matter demanding careful attention is to survey, plot, and number all fields and other enclosures, houses and other buildings situate within the limits of deviation, that is, the boundaries of the space beyond which it is not proposed to deviate the line of railway. The object of numbering every separate enclosure, road, building, or other object on the plan, is that they may be the more readily described in a book prepared for that purpose and called the Reference Book. ”

“ Maps are almost as cheap to print as wall paper, and could often be used as such. We need to be familiarized with the look of the chart of the world. It is of good advantage, especially to children and to young [Pg 234] men and women at the gateway of larger life, to have maps of the world in front of them, in front of them often. ”

“ Maps are toadies to the thoroughfares. They shower their attentions on the wide pavements, holding them up to observation, marking them in red, and babbling and prattling obsequiously about them, meanwhile snubbing with disregard all the lanes and bypaths. ”

“ Anyone who attempts to draw a base map must, first of all, know how each feature or part of the map should be represented. Most of the conventional symbols for features shown on base maps are well established and should invariably be used; for instance, a line composed of alternate long and short dashes (not dashes and dots) represents a county boundary, and a line or two parallel lines across which short lines are drawn at regular intervals represents a railroad. ”

“ The cultural features represented on a map include "the works of man"—not only cities, towns, buildings, bridges, railroads, and other roads, but State, county, and other boundary lines—in short, all that part of a three-color base map which is shown in black, the engraved plate for the black being called the culture plate. ”

“ Ordinarily, the objects one would locate are corners of buildings, fence corners, intersections of roads, corners of lots, banks of streams, possibly trees, and section and quarter-section corners in the country. A railroad, a lake, a mountain, or anything which forms a noticeable landmark in any particular locality, ought to be on the map. In mapping a territory which has never been surveyed before, the first surveyor may name the hills and streams. ”

“ It can be seen at the British Museum. That which is here presented is the central part of this, not reduced, but on the same scale. Its interest is greatly increased by the fact that the names are printed on the map, and are not given separately as in other instances. ”

“ The primary purpose of these topographic surveys is to provide the bases for geologic maps, yet these topographic maps, which cover 40 per cent of the area of the United States, are used in every type of civil engineering as well as by the public generally. The annual distribution by sale of half a million of these maps is an index of their value to the people. ”

“ For convenience assume that the eye remains over the centre of the screen at a distance of two feet. At a height of four miles above the ground the scale of the image on the screen would be exactly six inches to one mile, or a reproduction of the popular county map, on which every detail of importance such as houses, roads, paths, and fences is shown, and the smallest scale on which any attempt is made to preserve the relative proportions of such details. ”

“ Many a cartographer, burning with desire to draw a good map of a newly explored region, has been driven to despair by the inadequacy of the route surveys in his hands. Not a few of these surveys have been unworthy of reproduction in the books of the explorers who made them, and the best that could be done was to generalize their information on maps of comparatively small scale. ”