Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

Here is a great source of maps that can be used as base maps for many kinds of cartography: the Perry-Castaeda Library Map Collection. See:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

The best thing to do is to take maps such as these, and make line tracings of just the details needed to show latitude, longitude, distance scale, outlines and other relevant data, and removing all irrelevant data.

The aim is to minimise information clutter, and create an original, personal base map.

Then you can add your own information, and make it more visible and understandable (travel routes, collection sites, historical locations, etc.).

A common mistake these days is to take hugely detailed Google maps, or maps from other digital sources, and put data onto them without removing the unnecessary information first. This approach is easy for the author, but not easy for readers, and is also a bad idea from the point of view of copyrights, unless the source is properly acknowledged.

We should always try to look at maps we present from the point of view of our audience.

What does the eye first see, if we do not already know what the map is meant to show?