Photo of a book opened to a map titled “Myriad Marathons” showing many marathon-length routes to Boston as well as the official Boston Marathon purse and the 26.TRUE course.

Marathon Monday is upon us, and of course the book doesn’t skip it. I dropped in this map from ages ago, but at the last minute added the “real” Boston marathon, 26.TRUE, which took place over the weekend. It’s actually *in* Boston and is designed to celebrate the city’s diversity and culture.

Photo of a printed map of Boston with some molasses spilled on it.

I, too, ran a physics-based simulation in 2019 on the 100th anniversary of the event.

For the true molasses heads, this map is based on the physics-based simulation by Steven N. Ward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC8d...

Photo of the book Boston in 50 Maps, opened to a page titled "The Way of Ducklings" with a map of the events that take place in the classic children's book Make Way For Ducklings.

Sorry, here I am with more Boston in 50 Maps promo! This was a simple map, but nevertheless it was one of my favorites: a map of the places and events in Make Way For Ducklings. The story seems to take place in a Boston that always was and always will be, so it just seemed like an essential map.

If these astronauts don’t do the “moon’s haunted” bit when the door opens then I don’t know what all of this was for

Photo of several copies of the book Boston in 50 Maps, by me, with one book open to a page and map called "Squares"

Well well, look what turned up at my doorstep today!

TIL someone has cataloged (and mapped) every hill inside 128. Not sure how I've never seen this before!

@universalhub.com

www.bostonbasinhills.org

Our next entry in the 50 Maps series: Boston! @awoodruff.bsky.social uncovers the many things that give the city its unique personality.

Pictures 2/3 give a preview of just one page, showing the varying opinions on neighborhood boundaries according to residents!

Get your preorders in at our site!

I’ve been working on a talking point about every moment from now on being the moment with more people using (or making!) maps than ever before in the history of the world.

They’re everywhere! “Map” is right there in the apps’ names! Yet, that people still exist to make them blows everyone’s mind.

Boston in 50 Maps By Andy Woodruff May 19, 2026 See Boston from a new perspective in these fifty-plus new, original maps. In this fun and informative book, you can trace Paul Revere’s ride as well as Viking Leif Erikso...

Is it time for me to put out another call for cartographers for our 50 Maps series? As our forthcoming title makes clear, we’re going nationwide with this one

Photo of a book acknowledgments page with a highlighted sentence: “And Andy Woodruff, who makes the most glorious maps.”

Also, maybe authors thank cartos like this all the time, but this mention in the acknowledgments was so kind! Might need to change my professional branding to “Most Glorious Maps”

i'm sorry but the moon is a complete boondoggle that should never have been put up there in the first place. we still have to send repair missions up there a hundred-plus years later all because taft was trailing in the polls and decided to learn magick. i don't know why he thought it would help him

Photo of a child’s school paper showing a map of North America with title “then I look at the continent and find my country” and the child’s written answer to the prompt “I live in:”.

Heck yeah, never happier to help my kid with stupid kindergarten homework than when it’s map-related! So proud to live in the Yownidi Stats of Omerce. 🇺🇸

The designer I worked for said “we don’t typically send a book” etc. so I didn’t bother asking, but I wonder if I could have just asked someone in a different department 🤔

I’m just pretending that they paid me $31 less, which still leaves a more than good enough fee.

Used Eduard for hillshading here and it came out nicely as usual!

(The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier, by Megan Kate Nelson)

Thanks, I probably should have mentioned that! It’s The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier, by Megan Kate Nelson

Photo of a map of the United States in a book.

First time paying 31 bucks for my own maps, but also first time making maps for someone’s book! (I needed something new to read anyway.)

Map of the White Mountains and New Hampshire lakes region.

Anyway, from a work in progress. Same old same old, if you know me. In the end I’m hoping for something wall-worthy for a popular vacation region.

Oh that rings a bell! And I'm sure at the time I thought I'd easily remember what the tip was or who posted it... 😣

Especially when you rack up enough labels that Illustrator needs 5 seconds to think every time you move something!

I realized the count may be exaggerated, depending what counts as a label—it's 4200 text objects, and sometimes there are two (or more) per feature label, notably 940ish summit/elevation pairs. Still, I've got some missing hydro labels and intend to do some roads, so it'll probably be >4000 anyway!

Snippets of four maps of Boston: urban renewal, tree foliage, proximity to Dunkin', and turkey sightings

Of course, there are curiosities, deep-ish dives, and fun maps too!

Image of a map with only the text labels visible

4200 labels and counting! 😵‍💫

Snippets of four maps of Boston: one showing some famous firsts, one showing age distribution, one showing the proportion of people born out of state, and one showing notable Revolutionary War sites.

Some of the maps are, well, simple and a bit boring—but that's okay! Basic demographics, history, etc. lay the foundation of a city's character, and are part of a cartographic tale. It can't only be deep dives and curiosities.

(Though if I had infinite time, I'd spice up the design of these.)

A long shot on this site (RIP my old Twitter network), but if anyone knows Boston media types who might be interested in covering this book in some way, I would be grateful for the connection! 🙇‍♂️

Thanks! And, of course, thank you for the opportunity to do this book! It only dawned on me a day or two ago that it’s time to start getting excited for pub day.

Boston in 50 Maps - Andy Woodruff, cartographer A book of 50+ original maps of Boston.

Well folks, we are less than two months away from the publication of Boston in 50 Maps, so it's about time for me to start clogging your feeds with promotion. (You can pre-order it now! You've been able to for a while!)

First: added a thing about it on my website. andywoodruff.com/posts/2026/b...

Oh no, a loss indeed! Once upon a time Jeff had me up there to give some talk to his students, and hosted me at his house, kept warm by a wood stove. Really sad to hear this news; he was a great person.