I am so on this one! I'll edit this post as I learn more First - I tried to make the names more readable in Photoshop. Can you post every name that you can read? What I have deduced so far: - topleft: probably says Ocean so that means that there's an ocean to the north of the location - the swirly line through the middle then must be the shore - the dashed line through the middle clearly reads Arctic on the left and probably reads Northern and Indians on the right. My guess is that this map is around the Arctic Circle in North America, so I'm guesing Canada. - below that we can see three letters, probably saying North. I think that combining this with the one it might be possible that it's supposed to say Northwest Territories as it is one of the few places that has the Arctic Ocean to the north of itself. That, or Nunavut? It fits with the relative lack of detail the map seems to have, since it was then relatively uncharted terrain.
- bottom left is really hard to read, but what stands out is P. Williams and Cooks. I'm guessing those are respectively rivers and towns, as often rivers are slanted whilst places are not. The style of the map seems similar to this one, so it's probably around the 1900s. edit2: I found this website with historical maps of Canada, going through them now. edit3: nah useless site edit4: I'm probably overthinking this, but hey, it's fun! My guess is that the letters are composed of famous pieces of work (like Beethoven) and that the letters spell out Valentine. Now to find out what famous maps of what I presume is Canada there are... edit5: found this really cool Wiki Commons page on old Canadian maps. edit6: found a list of Canadian cartographers edit7: neither links led to any progression, so I'm gonna stop searching until I have more location names
badged for research into historical maps of Canada So far just Veen and me got the bits of historical map of Canada letters "N" and "L" -- Also, we might be the only two who normally live in the not-USA. and I might be the only one who normally lives in Canada Also veen is probably headed to Calgary next year to study urban planning Also Veen's "N" could stand for Netherlands Also it's been really cold all over, hence the puzzle pieces of the far north, Baffin Island and the Arctic circle.
Thanks! Quite fun to research this, I always enjoy a good puzzle. But don't forget that it's nowaypablo's letter and not mine. I just took the chance to find the ostensibly obscure map that ref has used. Also, in good news, I received confirmation yesterday that I got through the selection process and that I will go to Calgary this fall. Very excited for that! Any lines or shapes you can work out from your letter that might help deduce where it is?
hmmmm, you mean noway's letter was an "N"? (humanodon) Enrico's letter was an "E"
lil's letter was an "L"
codingvagrant's "V" could be for vagrant I wonder whether fishontheplate's name starts with "A" or if "A" is just for the a in plate
Yossarian's "N" ?? Here's my hypothesis: V Vagrant) A (fishonaplate's actual first name) L (Lil) E (Enrico) N (YossariaN) T (Taylor - Insomniasexx) I (whIte?) N (Noway) E (Æsthetikx?)
Awesome. At the very bottom below P. Williams I see "M92" (maybe W92?) just to the left of the longitude line, for whatever that's worth.
Yes, 92nd meridian west! Aka Nunavut. So it must be where the Arctic Circle crosses the meridian, which is here. I think that the piece of shore topleft on the N sorta matches the Queen Maud huge-ass green bird area. edit1: Turns out that Nunavut has only been called that way since 1991, before it was a part of the Northwest Territories. So it probably still is Northwest Territories that the capital letters denote. edit2: I think we have a match! cue dramatic CSI scene confronting the suspect. The shorelines match roughly, the Arctic cicle neatly defines the border of the bird area and the bit of water in the bottom right matches too. This is fun!
I think we're all a little hesitant to crack jokes for fear of being reddit.