Post #1795690

2025-12-02 08:25 UTC

For Decades, Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/for-decades-cartographers-have-been-hiding-covert-illustrations-inside-of-switzerlands-official-maps/ &quot;As Juerg Gilgen, a current cartographer at Swisstopo, told me “as a matter of fact, the proof-reader is also just a human being prone to failure. And cartographers are also just human beings trying to fool around.”&quot; Wonderful, wonderful stuff. #MapMaking #maps #cartography #switzerland #Swisstopo #topography #hidden #illustration #eyeondesign

Replies (7)

@idiran@livellosegreto.it 2025-12-02 11:53

@moongold@mastodon.social There seems to be a fish kissing the beaver's right shoulder, too 🙂 Funny and instructive stuff!

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@Paperposts@zirk.us 2025-12-02 16:25

@moongold@mastodon.social i love this, i love that people still add whimsy to the maps and make them unique. the entire history of using deliberate mistakes, additions, omissions and these wonderful signatures to try and protect their IP is fascinating.

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@StumpyTheMutt@social.linux.pizza 2025-12-02 16:51

@moongold@mastodon.social This is kind of like the pranks MIT students pull on their Harvard cousins. Officially proscribed, but definitely part of the culture.

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@tallpaul@mastodon.scot 2025-12-02 18:29

@moongold@mastodon.social Slightly less imaginatively Ordnance Survey cartographers have their names in the cliffs on the 1:50,000 Isle of Wight mapping e.g. "BILL" at Blackgang Chine (there are others like "ROB" and "TREV" closer to The Needles)

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@luca_defeo@ioc.exchange 2025-12-03 14:24

@moongold@mastodon.social @MonniauxD@social.sciences.re Spent half an hour looking for the marmot, identified the exact location, only to find the marmot is gone and the article is 4 years old 😢 The glacier under the marmot will soon be gone too 😭

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@marcleobet@piaille.fr 2025-12-03 17:37

@moongold@mastodon.social I unfortunately lost the picture of a poor donkey that died of thirst in Mauritania, drawn by grains of sand placed by the French cartographer. The map was like this one : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qVkuJA2pRANWROUV9rTXlPMWc/view?resourcekey=0-JtIaYKysT8JMfYLjVdlMAA

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@wesdym@mastodon.social 2025-12-03 19:40

@moongold@mastodon.social A very large geological map of Connecticut that I've seen (something like 1.5 m diagonal) includes a tiny (<5 mm) glyph of a dog at a location known locally as the Hanging Hills. This references a legend, of the Black Dog of the Hanging Hills. Why it was put there, I assume is just whimsy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_(folklore)#North_America

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