National Geographic’s Cartographic Typefaces
By Juan Valdes from nationalgeographic.com: Our maps have long been known for their distinctive typefaces. But few outside the Society know little of the history that lies behind them. Until the early 1930s, most of our maps were hand-lettered—a slow and tedious process requiring great patience and even greater skill. An alternate process—that of setting names […]
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
By Maria Popova from brainpickings.org: Two Victorian women race against each other around the world, countering the cultural inertia of their era. “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real,” science fiction godfather Jules Verne famously proclaimed. He was right about the general sentiment but oh how very wrong about its gendered language: […]