Art
This map of Baltimore shows a young American city plotting its future. In the 1800s, as cities grew fast and chaotic, maps like this one helped ordinary people navigate new streets, find homes, and understand where opportunity lay. They were tools of daily life.
Art · Full story
You're standing in a Baltimore street, map in hand, looking for the address your cousin mentioned—a new boarding house two blocks over. The city spreads around you, still half-familiar, half-strange. Streets you walked last year don't exist on this older map. You fold it, squint at the street corner, and keep walking.
Reflect
How do you find your way through an unfamiliar place today? What has changed since your parents' time?