Most of us using GIS today do not get to do much mapping of whales, but back in the mid 19th century the American whaling trade was big business and you needed to know where the whales were.

Check out this innovative map from 1851 showing the distribution of several different species of whales, identifying each with a combination of color and pictorial symbols.  The map shows at that time that the Pacific Ocean was the primary habitat for whales.  The Atlantic Ocean was not because the whale resources there had been terribly depleted.  Check it out!

Found this interesting digital map of San Francisco in the David Rumsey Map Collection.  It was a massive wooden model of San Francisco that has not been on display in one piece since 1942.  The 158 pieces that create a 42×38 foot model of the city were digitally photographed and pieced together to create one big mosaic image.  The model represented the city as it was in 1940.  Check it out!

From NFL Memes, who America is rooting for in the Super Bowl:

The product of 400 different railroads, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) is using GIS to convert all their paper maps collected over 170 years into digital information.  Click below to read all about it.

Have a few minutes to spare before your next task?  Open Google Maps and turn on the satellite imagery.  Now zoom all the way out until you see Earth and listed on the left are planets, moons, and other objects you can zoom to and check out.  See you in an hour!

Sir Francis Galton was the first to identify the anticyclone (as opposed to the cyclone), and introduced the use of charts showing areas of similar air pressure – the modern weather map.  His book Meteorographica was the first systematic attempt to gather, chart and interpret weather data on a continental scale, a fundamental work of modern scientific meteorology.

Galton prepared the first weather map published in the British newspaper The Times (April 1 1875, showing the weather from the previous day, March 31), now a standard feature in newspapers worldwide.  Click below to read more about Sir Francis Galton.