What is this a map of?

[corco]

Any theories?

[Takumi]

What year is it? One possibility could be gains and losses in the House of Representatives.

[corco]

"Old" is what I've been told- probably 50s to 70s

The insets are for Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Los Angeles

[allniter89]

"Old" is what I've been told- probably 50s to 70s

The insets are for Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Los Angeles

Scranton?????????

[corco]

That's why I feel like it has to be a map of something

[Takumi]

Yeah, Scranton threw me for a loop there.

[xonhulu]

It looks like there are also insets for San Francisco, Erie (???), and maybe Boston? Plus somewhere else I can't place on the far right, but it looks like it's on water.

[mgk920]

Looks to me to be a fairly standard low-res printed map of the USA where the colors of the states have faded over time.  Might there be lines on there representing mainline railroads?

Mike

[corco]

The lines represent rivers, and if it weren't for the random insets I'd totally agree- you may still be right though.

[corco]

Actually , I think you're right.

BOOM
http://www.mapagents.com/pages/cleartype.htm

Thanks all- that was less interesting than I though tit was 

[agentsteel53]

Actually , I think you're right.

BOOM
http://www.mapagents.com/pages/cleartype.htm

Thanks all- that was less interesting than I though tit was 

I'm afraid that page doesn't clarify it for me.  what is the purpose of the map, and why were those particular cities chosen as insets?

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Shows Alaska and Hawaii, so it's post 1959.  I think it's an old Nat Geo map.

[Duke87]

Shows Alaska and Hawaii, so it's post 1959.

Not necessarily. I've seen US maps that show Puerto Rico even though it's not a state.

[agentsteel53]

Shows Alaska and Hawaii, so it's post 1959.

Not necessarily. I've seen US maps that show Puerto Rico even though it's not a state.

indeed.  my 1957 Rand McNally wall atlas of the US (the last one with no interstate markers!) shows Alaska and Hawaii.  interestingly, for Hawaii, it shows the defense route network of the 1940s, complete with US shields.

[empirestate]

Actually , I think you're right.

BOOM
http://www.mapagents.com/pages/cleartype.htm

Thanks all- that was less interesting than I though tit was 

I'm afraid that page doesn't clarify it for me.  what is the purpose of the map, and why were those particular cities chosen as insets?

Its purpose is to show all towns and cities of a certain size (>5000, for example). So, the insets are only for those areas where it's necessary to zoom in on a closely-packed bunch of municipalities.

A touring production company I've been working for lately has the B/W version of this map on their office wall.

[NE2]

A touring production company I've been working for lately has the B/W version of this map on their office wall.

That's a little silly. The assumption seems to be that people from McKeesport won't go to an event in Pittsburgh but people from Staten Island will go to one in the Bronx.

[empirestate]

A touring production company I've been working for lately has the B/W version of this map on their office wall.

That's a little silly. The assumption seems to be that people from McKeesport won't go to an event in Pittsburgh but people from Staten Island will go to one in the Bronx.

Why silly? It's not the production company's problem where the audience comes from; that's the local presenter's business. But if we're booked in a venue located in McKeesport (or Schaumburg, IL or Florissant, MO or Arroyo Grande, CA), it's helpful to have a map showing it, rather than just Pittsburgh (or Chicago, or St. Louis, or...well, Arroyo Grande isn't really near anything large ).

[NE2]

But if we're booked in a venue located in McKeesport (or Schaumburg, IL or Florissant, MO or Arroyo Grande, CA), it's helpful to have a map showing it, rather than just Pittsburgh (or Chicago, or St. Louis, or...well, Arroyo Grande isn't really near anything large ).

How is it more useful to show McKeesport than Jamaica, Queens? If you're booked in McKeesport, that's a Pittsburgh-area venue. If you're booked in Jamaica (or Hoboken, or Mount Vernon), that's a NYC-area venue. The actual shape of the city limits matters little.

[empirestate]

But if we're booked in a venue located in McKeesport (or Schaumburg, IL or Florissant, MO or Arroyo Grande, CA), it's helpful to have a map showing it, rather than just Pittsburgh (or Chicago, or St. Louis, or...well, Arroyo Grande isn't really near anything large ).

How is it more useful to show McKeesport than Jamaica, Queens? If you're booked in McKeesport, that's a Pittsburgh-area venue. If you're booked in Jamaica (or Hoboken, or Mount Vernon), that's a NYC-area venue. The actual shape of the city limits matters little.

Well, if you are booked into McKeesport but not into Jamaica, that would explain why showing McKeesport is more useful than showing Jamaica!

Now, as for showing McKeesport vs. Pittsburgh, which is what I think you're getting at, here are some reasons why you'd want to see it on a map:
-So that when the booking shows up for McKeesport and you've never heard of it (most people don't know the names of all the suburbs of America's large cities), you can look on the map and there it will be. That's, indeed, how you'd learn that it's a Pittsburgh-area venue, should you need to know (like to book a flight).
-So the truck and bus drivers deliver the show to McKeesport and not to Pittsburgh.
-So the company is booked into a hotel reasonably close to the McKeesport venue, instead of out by the airport for example.
-So you can differentiate between different Pittsburgh-area venues, for example if you were playing later on over in Carnegie, or in Pittsburgh proper.

These Pittsburgh-area examples are hypothetical, but here's a real-life case: I've played venues in Schaumburg, IL, Palos Hills, IL, Joliet, IL, and Kenosha, WI, all of which are Chicago-area towns (you might even include Rockford, IL if you're thinking wide-ranging). Now if I'm putting together a touring production and looking at a map in my office, and I see all of those places on the map with pins stuck in each one, I know that I'm planning for four or five different engagements. If all I see is a pin stuck in Chicago (or even five pins), already I know less about what I'm putting together. Yes, I'd eventually figure it out, but the map has been less helpful to me in doing so. That's why it would be useful to buy a map showing all of those town, rather than just the central city.

Another example: I have, on the same gig, played the following cities in southern Florida: Pembroke Pines, Ft. Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Belle Glade, Boca Raton and Ft. Pierce, all within the same 2 or 3 weeks. All of those are greater Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach-area locales. I cannot imagine trying to plan the logistics of such a tour if the information I was given said only that I was playing in "Miami"!

[NE2]

-So that when the booking shows up for McKeesport and you've never heard of it (most people don't know the names of all the suburbs of America's large cities), you can look on the map and there it will be. That's, indeed, how you'd learn that it's a Pittsburgh-area venue, should you need to know (like to book a flight).

What if the suburb you're going to doesn't have 5000+ people, e.g. Lake Buena Vista (Disney World)?

-So the truck and bus drivers deliver the show to McKeesport and not to Pittsburgh.

But it's fine if they deliver it to Times Square and not Jamaica?

-So the company is booked into a hotel reasonably close to the McKeesport venue, instead of out by the airport for example.

Same response - if you're playing in Jamaica you want to be near there, not on the other side of the city.

-So you can differentiate between different Pittsburgh-area venues, for example if you were playing later on over in Carnegie, or in Pittsburgh proper.

But you'd also want to differentiate between different venues within one large city such as NYC.

[PAHighways]

That's a little silly. The assumption seems to be that people from McKeesport won't go to an event in Pittsburgh but people from Staten Island will go to one in the Bronx.

I know people who won't drive a couple of miles to Greensburg because driving in it is "too hectic."

McKeesport is a rather bad example to use considering its economic base.  With respect to the map, it shouldn't be a surprise it would be on it considering its age.  The city was the center of the "steel valley," and much like Scranton being big in coal at the time, McKeesport was a major steel producing center.

[empirestate]

What if the suburb you're going to doesn't have 5000+ people, e.g. Lake Buena Vista (Disney World)?

In that case the map in question wouldn't help.

-So the truck and bus drivers deliver the show to McKeesport and not to Pittsburgh.

But it's fine if they deliver it to Times Square and not Jamaica?

No, that would be bad. However, venues within NYC will tend to be listed under their postal cities, of which Jamaica is one, so you probably wouldn't make that mistake. (Also, since the company is based in NYC, they would be more familiar with the local venues...maybe.

-So the company is booked into a hotel reasonably close to the McKeesport venue, instead of out by the airport for example.

Same response - if you're playing in Jamaica you want to be near there, not on the other side of the city.

Right...again, the map we're discussing wouldn't help in that case. And as I say, you'd already know you were playing Jamaica rather than Times Square, just as you know you'd be playing McKeesport rather than Pittsburgh. It's just that in the first case, the map doesn't show you the difference, whereas in the second case it does. Now of course, you're not doing all your planning from that one map!

-So you can differentiate between different Pittsburgh-area venues, for example if you were playing later on over in Carnegie, or in Pittsburgh proper.

But you'd also want to differentiate between different venues within one large city such as NYC.

Sure would; that would involve buying another map. But at least the map you've got has already solved the same problem regarding the suburbs of Miami or Chicago!

[empirestate]

McKeesport is a rather bad example to use considering its economic base.  With respect to the map, it shouldn't be a surprise it would be on it considering its age.  The city was the center of the "steel valley," and much like Scranton being big in coal at the time, McKeesport was a major steel producing center.

Well, with respect to this map, it's strictly a population threshold that determines whether it would be on the map. Which, I'll admit, would tend to make some rather "undeserving" municipalities appear!

[hbelkins]

So, what is the map, anyway? No one ever really said...

[NE2]

So, what is the map, anyway? No one ever really said...

Its purpose is to show all towns and cities of a certain size (>5000, for example). So, the insets are only for those areas where it's necessary to zoom in on a closely-packed bunch of municipalities.