FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2026-036

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (March 5, 2026) – This issue of Fun with Maps gives us a different view of earth.

Mercator

Today is Gerardus Mercator’s birthday – March 5, 1512, born in Flanders, modern day western Belgium.

He created the Mercator projection, where the earth is ‘flattened” out, and this projection is the most commonly used one to this day.   The practical utility is for naval navigation as the straight lines represent sailing at constant bearing, also called rhumb lines.  The downside with this projection is that it enlarges areas closer to the poles, so as an example, Canada looks bigger than it really is.

He is also credited to use the word “Atlas” for a collection of maps bound together.  He issued several Atlases over the years.

He didn’t travel a lot and the sources for his maps were his considerable library and even more so his correspondence with other cartographers, and scholars in one of the six languages he spoke.

Presented here is Teesdale’s 1831 world map on Mercator projection.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.