In vector cartography, the map is only as good as the data that powers it. If we don’t understand what’s going on in the underlying data, we’re pretty limited in our cartographic approach. A major part of this work involves parsing vector tile data, determining how one dataset compares to another, and diagnosing bugs encountered...
What is the Connection Engine? The Congruence Engine (later renamed Connection Engine) is a three-year research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in efforts to digitally connect industrial heritage collections across the UK. Using advanced digital tools such as AI, it links museum objects, archives, photographs, and more, enabling historians and curators...
Stamen has been working with a team out of UCSF (University of San Francisco) Population Health and Health Equity to create and maintain their Health Atlas since 2019. You can read a bit about the initial launch in our blog post from 2020. In 2024 we had the opportunity to rebuild the Health Atlas and...
Stamen has had the pleasure of developing Mapping Historical New York with Columbia’s Center for Spatial Research since 2021. We’ve written about it a few times, including most recently last fall, but here we wanted to expand on the technical implementation behind one layer on the map. The map displays census data in New York...
In March 2023, we shared the initial release of a set of global basemaps we designed for Amazon Location Service. In 2024, we undertook a design refresh to improve upon the original release, adding more detail and contrast to the suite of maps Amazon provides. To celebrate the release, we are excited to walk you...
The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2024 conference in Tacoma, WA was yet another fantastic gathering of cartographers, mappers, and map enthusiasts. Stamen was well-represented this year by Kelsey Taylor, Eric Brelsford, and Alan McConchie. This was a busy year for us – we presented five talks between the three of us! Now that...
Welcome to the third and final part of our series on maps and data visualizations in advance of the 2024 U.S. General Election (if you’re just catching up, here are parts one and two). Today, we’ll close with discussion of Congressional races and the electoral college. I’m just a bill We’ve mostly discussed the presidential...
Welcome to part two of our series on maps and data visualizations in advance of the 2024 U.S. General Election (if you missed it, here’s part one on polling). Today, we’re discussing other indicators of political outcomes, including money in politics, changing demographics, key issues, and previous elections. Here comes the money Politics is all...
This is a perfect encapsulation of how we’re all feeling: unsettled. The presidential race has been neck-and-neck for months, even before President Biden decided to step off the ticket back in July. As the 2024 general election approaches, we thought we’d dig into some maps and visualizations of election data from across the media landscape...
Content in this post comes from our presentation at the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) 2024 Annual Meeting last week in Tacoma, WA. Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas visualizes New York City’s transformations during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries both in terms of population and landscape. Drawing on 1850, 1880, 1910, and...