Hello Virginia and Maps-L:
     Week before last was "Archives Week" here in Georgia and for about
5 hours I had to put up a poster and sit a desk in the front lobby of
the University of Georgia Main Library. I made a fair sized poster that
had a color map of the Muslim world as a background and sections of
three maps showing the Khyber Pass as overlays.  The three overlay maps
were a British Empire, a 1980s Soviet Empire, and a recent CIA map of
the Khyber Pass.  I then sat a a table with a detailed map of
Afghanistan laid out.  Some 1000 people an hour went past and only about
10 slowed down and asked a question.  Was it the 'Archives Week,' maps,
or a lack of geographical interest?  I also ran a 1950's tape of the
H-bomb test in the Pacific for one hour.  They slowed down for that at
certain points, but only one stopped to look at the maps. I should have
read Kipling aloud.
Johnnie

On Fri, 26 Oct 2001 21:53:36 -0700 "Virginia R. Hetrick"
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> Hi, Brian -
>
> He's done this sort of thing before and a number of comments about the earlier presentation were that, "For the first time, we know where all those places are", even if the map is somehow distorted, warped, or otherwise not cartographically correct.  It also says something about the state of geographic knowledge in the US.
>
> I think the sad thing is that this sort of thing is even necessary.  At least most of the people I know already have more than a clue about where most of the countries/regions were before his program aired.  I think it was something about my having a bunch of atlases in a bookcase visible through my screen door!  ;-)
>
> Yesterday I printed off a map on my big printer and put it in the window of my place so that it's visible whenever somebody goes down the stairs.  It's amazing how many people have stopped to look at it while I've been grading papers today.  ;-)
>
> Have a good weekend.
>
> vh
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