These are not your ‘Google Maps’

Loveland Beacon welcomes Steve Kovacs with a new feature – maps and fun facts trip through the world: then and now

By:  Chuck Gibson

 LOVELAND, OH (June 9, 2020) – Before we get to the inaugural issue of Steve Kovacs maps feature here on Loveland Beacon, I thought you might want to know a bit about this Loveland local and the maps and fun facts he’s going to be sharing with us here.

Steve Kovacs, his wife Theresa and their two children have been familiar faces in Loveland since 1999.  He has nurtured a passion for geography and maps throughout most of his adult life.  After retiring from Procter & Gamble’s Research and Development organization several years ago, he shifted gears and placed a more serious focus on collecting antique maps.

“For many people, maps are what is in your hand when you have a phone,” said Kovacs. “You have your ‘Google Maps’ and it’s really about getting from point A to point B and you can find out how to get there. Getting to the old maps, the antique maps, it’s more about information about how people interact with their environment. You see more and more of that the older the maps are.”

 Old maps also reveal more about how people learned about their surroundings. Those “antique” maps tell how they were able to capture information during the age of discovery.

“In many ways the older maps are almost a form of art,” Kovacs said. “You go back to the pre-1800’s especially, even the later ones, they become very colorful. They put sea-monsters or land monsters into the maps. It was a form of art.”

Kovacs knows maps are different things for different people. Maps can be a link to history. It was new information, new learning for the people who created the maps. Their maps were a way to share that information with other people. Still others found the creation of maps to be a form of art. Maps can be a connection to where you are from or where your ancestors are from.

“You may have a map of some part of the world that is important to you,” said Kovacs. “You may collect maps. A map is a collectable for many people.”

Kovacs made the analogy of people who may collect baseball cards – a picture of somebody on a card.  Again, it is different things for different people. He collects, buys and sells maps. His Facebook posts sharing map images and a few short words has drawn a positive response from followers of his social media posts.

“I find them fascinating personally,” Kovacs said. “After I retired, it became obvious I should do more than just think about them. That’s how I got into collecting and buying and selling maps.”

Steve has also established a boutique on-line map gallery, world-on-paper.com.  He believes that antique maps document the evolution of humanity’s discovery of, and adaptation to, the topographical environment over the centuries.  He enjoys antique maps not only for their factual content but for their attractive and artful visual impact.  

Loveland Beacon hopes you will enjoy Steve Kovacs maps and facts too.

Issue 1 – Tuesday, June 9, 2020

By: Steve Kovacs for your viewing pleasure:

Today is Saint Columba Day in Ireland. 

He is one of the three patron saints of Ireland, along with St. Patrick and Ste. Brigit of Kildare.  Columba, or Colm Cille in Irish, was a 6th century Bishop who spread Christianity to Scotland. (Editor’s note: St. Columban Catholic Church here in Loveland, Ohio is named for St. Columba(n) of Ireland.)  

This 1831 map of Ireland is by Henry Teesdale.  The map shows many roads or turnpikes and predates the first Irish railroad by just 3 years.  Teesdale was a prominent cartographer and publisher based in London and one of the founding fellows of the Royal Cartographic Society

 (Credit Steve Kovacs)