Washington in Maps

by Iris Miller

Standing among the most important cities of the world, and a planned city from its inception, Washington, District of Columbia, is abundantly documented. In Washington in Maps, Iris Miller delves into this historic documentation, into sometimes rare and often buried maps and letters and charts, and reveals to us a brilliant portrait of this ever-evoloving capital of a nation.

Washington in Maps features, in full color, over 100 glorious maps, dating from the seventeenth century to the present, featuring the most splendid antique maps of Washington-to the extraordinary, otherworldly satellite imagery of today. Included are maps by Thomas Jefferson and Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the man upon whose design modern Washington now stands; a map of Captain John Smith from 1608; and maps by the Senate Park (McMillan) Commission, among many others.

Maps detail both the current reality of a place, and, as well, offer imaginative renderings of future possibility, in the process often becoming something of extraordinary beauty in their own right. Washington in Maps charts a passionate course through this terrain and serves as a testament to the wonder, artistry, and intelligence that these maps manifest.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2002

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[David Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a resident of the Metro area, this volume provides an interesting chronological perspective. The volume disappoints, however, in that the reproductions are at a size too small to trace the details the text alludes to. Detail illustrations would have helped enormously. And apparently no one in the production process noted that the image on pp. 136-7 is reversed.