2024 Map Gift Guide

Clément Aubry creates very, ah, French illustrations styled as pitch-perfect topos.

Tactile Craftworks etches detailed maps into leather clutches, journals and flasks, trimming the edges to match coastlines.

Austin Brown's mounted cement castings of state topography.

Artist Austin Brown uses an elevation model to 3D print a mold, casts a state’s detailed topography in cement, then mounts it in a black or white 13x13" frame.

John Tauranac walked every block in Manhattan to create his detailed NYC pedestrian guides.

Daniel Huffman makes hand-dyed sun-printed cyanotypes on Awagami unbleached paper.

New World Cartography: South Carolina cartographer Travis Folk’s watercolor maps, embellished with native fauna.

Cameron Booth designs original transit maps and picks good old ones to reprint.

Praire Heart Maps: Alex McPhee’s 6 -foot maps of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Place Value Pottery: textured map mugs by Malaika Tolford.

The Melbourne Map: colorful meter-wide illustrated maps of Melbourne and the Bellarine Peninsula.

Matthew Dean Shaffer: bird's-eye maps of Pittsburgh, New Haven, Lewisburg, Auckland.

Jug Cerović: 50+ original transit maps of the world’s major cities.

Anna Eshelman illustrated this 11x14" nighttime map of the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier; it’s a real kind of map that can make you feel a noseful of 6° air.

Leonie Schlosser makes high-craft maps of France with vectors, rasters, inks, watercolors, acrylics, glazes, fired clay. Best living cartographer.

Arborist and artist Reynold Mackey drops a tree, lathes a 45-lb wooden sphere, then spends three years carving an accurate physiographic globe. He uses a dremel and dental picks to chip seamounts, ridges, ranges, drainages, all so fine you can find your favorite kettle lake with a magnifying glass.

Marine Le Breton draws swirling ink-and-watercolor nautical maps of the French coast: buildings, roads, cliffs, ranges, aids to navigation.

Illustrator Mke Hall makes great reference maps: illustrations, hand-drawn relief, flawless type, every single inch gets full regard.

National Geographic cartographer Eric Knight creates five-foot-wide beautifully lit panoramas.

Loraine Rutt’s ceramic globes and maps, sculpted and painted in her London studio.

If you have $120k, Bellerby & Co has the 4 ft. hand-painted globe for you.

Sous le Soleil: cyanotypes of French vintage maps, mostly coastal areas.

Cheyenne Mallo: ceramic map bowls, mugs, flasks and custom tile backsplashes.

All Mapped Out: vintage maps printed on ceramic, cork-bottom coasters.

Lord of Maps: Isaac Dushku’s illustrated maps of all 50 states, the entire world, and a sweet mountain-themed board book.

Imus Geographics: Dave Imus’s magisterial wall map, the Essential Geography of the United States.

Mediaeval Mapmaker: Jesse Kennedy has drawn more than 500 themed maps.

Marvellous Maps: maps of Britain’s rude place names, folklore, fauna and more.

Roadside Secrets: illustrated maps of California’s hot springs and a guide to Highway 1.

Cam Ojeda: ink street maps of global cities.

Arne Rohweder: map umbrella...2,000 piece puzzle map of Switzerland...nice.

James Niehues: grab a ski area landscape painting as a print or postcard.

Digby Illustrations: illustrated aerial views of Irish coastlines and landmarks.

Manuscript Maps: Kevin Sheehan draws maps of distilleries, cities, and the moon with a nib pen.

Quail Lane Press features Michelle Snyder’s 30+ handmade letterpress maps and illustrations.

Get Maine cartographer Jane Crosen’s illustrated maps as prints, cards and dish towels; she even sells a cookbook.

Sophie Parr’s intricate pen portraits of cities include every house, most trees.

Alex Hotchin’s illustrated maps of Australian landforms, flora and fauna.

Bob Waldmire: Waldmire’s brother sells prints of the late, great cartographer’s work. Perfect for the Western home.

Crypto Cartography: Alex Burden’s ink maps of National Parks are available as prints and shirts.

The Cartographic Arts: Daniel Robinson’s detailed maps of England.

Jeff Murray: illustrated continent-scale perspective maps.

Dan Coe: colorful LIDAR-derived relative elevation map-portraits of rivers.

Bombora Maps: Grant Preller scouted and drew maps of Western Australia’s best surf spots.

Jeff Clark spent 18 months on a reference map of the WA/BC region.

Xplorer Maps: Chris Robitaille’s maps of national parks, states and more.

Geometer Steve Waterman’s "Butterfly" projection available in Pacific- and Atlantic-centered prints.

Guy’s Safari Maps: surf-themed maps of Southeast Asia and Australia.

There’s a years-long waitlist for a Sara Drake map but your patience will be rewarded.

Satellite Stitches: Danielle Currie turns satellite imagery into embroidered hoops.

Andrew Lynch created the most detailed track map of the New York City subway. Boston, Chicago available too.

Columbus Cartography: modern copperplate etchings turned into handmade prints.

Mapoteca: original illustrated maps of Argentina, South America and the world by 40+ artists.

Anton Thomas’s enormous colored pencil maps feature 1,000+ animal illustrations.

OrbisTerræ: Gaël Gaborel’s handcrafted 10-14" desk globes with watercolor relief and land cover.

Eleanor Lutz: Bio PhD, graphics editor, scientific illustrator, cartographer of earth and sky, what can’t she do?

Anthony Despalins creates imagined landscapes patterned after French 1:50k topos; DM him for a print.

Kate Tarling: commission a custom embroidered street map.

Bill Marsh spent more than ten years on the only Philadelphia map you’ll ever need.

Alain Sauter and Cécile Blary make handmade plaster globes in Besançon, France; models on offer include the Earth, Moon and a celestial sphere with constellations, with sizes from 8" to 32".

Columbia Pressworks: maps stamped into copper sheets and saddle leather.

Turn of the Centuries: Kirsten Sparenborg’s detailed watercolor street maps of U.S. cities.

Has your heirloom globe seen better days? Expert restorer Yolaine Voltz can freehand gores, match century-old varnishes, and give it a new life.

An incomplete list by cartographer Evan Applegate. No affiliate links, just stuff I like, hope you buy something, if I missed something good please reach out.