For National History Day, the David Rumsey Map Center and the Branner Earth Science Library which make up Stanford’s Map Library collection, put together a very useful guide.  This guide explains not only how to read a map, but how to analyze it as well.

In a section entitled “Reading Maps”, they explain the key elements of a map:

• Title
• Legend
• Symbology
• Scale
• Compass Rose

Another section, entitled “Analyzing Maps” describe steps to take to really understand what the cartographer is trying to show.  Study the map and attempt to answer these questions:

• What attracts your eye?
• What is being emphasized?  What is being ignored?
• Can you find places where the map is not telling the truth? Bending the truth.  Try to find a lie in the map.
• Who made the map? Who is the map’s intended user or viewer? What might be the mapmaker’s agenda?
• When was the map made? What was going on in history at that time? Is the map responding to or influenced by that history?

Finally, they explain how to find maps at Stanford and provide links to other map sources.

A couple of excellent sources for more information are:

“How to Lie with Maps” by Mark Monmonier  (now in it’s 3rd edition)

“Bending Lines:  Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception” by the Leventhal Map & Education Center