The Plot, Issue 1: How We Got Here

How We Got Here

Years ago I was interviewing a NOAA climate scientist about glaciers. After we wrapped, he mentioned a place deep in the NOAA servers where you could search high-resolution scans of every chart they had ever made, dating back to the 1800s.

That night after deadline I found a chart of the Hudson and East Rivers from 1941. Something had happened during the scan — it came out as a negative. Black instead of white, chunky, and from a distance it looked like a starry sky. It occurred to me that depth soundings on a chart are data readings. Stars bouncing light back at us are data readings. Not that different.

I printed it on the newsroom plotter and hung it up. Of everything on my walls, that chart always drew comments. The refrain: “I love maps.” And truly, everyone does.

What is it about maps? In a way the human brain is just a map-making machine. Spatial awareness is consciousness itself — knowing where you are, where you’re going, and how to get home. That’s the core of identity. When people look at a map, digging into its details, it feels like looking right into the mind.

That’s what Coast & Horizon is about. Every journey outward is a journey within. Every map is a portal.

— Dan DeLorenzo, Founder

Map of the Week

Habana to Tampa Bay — 1916

This chart was published by the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey in August 1916. It covers the Straits of Florida — Havana to the north, the Keys, Dry Tortugas, Charlotte Harbor, Tampa Bay. The whole western approach to Florida, drawn at a moment when that route still mattered commercially.

At 1:471,000 scale, it reads like a document and looks like art.

Available in three sizes. Ships unframed on 250 gsm archival stock. The 28×40" is the one to get.