Friday, January 28, 2011

Maps of Everywhere All Over the Place. . .

I'm a History Geek.  Did you know that?  Okay, you probably guessed the Geek part, but maybe not the History part!  LOL.  Anyway, I love history. All kinds of history.  I could immerse myself in historical novels, movies, writings, both fiction and non-fiction, for hours at a time.  It could be US history, European History, English History, Russian History, even family history.  I just love it.

As a history geek, or maybe because of it, I have started a map collection.  Some are even historical.  In our family room, I have an historical map of Leesburg, the town we live in, from 1878:

In our Office, above the desk, I have a map of Russia.  This one is current, but may some day be historical considering the fluid nature of Russia's boundaries:

At the landing into the basement and going into our Rec Room, I have a map of Virginia, Delaware and Maryland as drawn by Peter Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's father:
In the hallway as you enter Pat's Man Cave, I have a hand drawn map of Loudoun County, the Virginia County that we live in, showing where all of the battles occurred in the Civil War. . .Red are Confederate Victories and Blue are Union Victories:

I have another map still to be framed showing Col. John Singleton Mosby's area which included all of Loudoun, parts of Fairfax County, Clarke County and Fauquier County all the way to Winchester, Virginia.  That one will also be somewhere in the basement near the rest of our Civil War paraphenalia.  Very Cool.

So, lately we have been thinking about rearranging our Rec Room and making it more adult friendly with the toys hidden a little more.  It won't take a lot, just a little re-wiring for the big screen TV, but will create a space bigger and better laid out for playing Wii and cars, and a larger area for a potentially larger TV (like we need that, but you know.).  Anyway, this will clear out two long walls in the Rec Room. . .prime wall estate for maps.  And here is what I am thinking. . .

On one wall, an old map of Washington, D. C.: our Capital and we live near it and visit it frequently.  This would be paired with an old map of Moscow: Aidan's other Capital.  On the opposing wall, an old map of California, where I was born; an old map of Oklahoma, where Pat was born; and a map of Krasnoyarsk Krai, where Aidan was born. 

These maps in the Rec Room could be interspersed with random shots of us, individually or as a family, in each of these locations.

What do you all think?

Of course, I just realized I do not have a map of the United States!  I will have to remedy that and possibly put that up above the desk in the Office with the Russia map. . .

I think I started thinking about doing this when, a couple of months after we came home with Aidan, I realized I had been in two major world Capitols in a very short period of time, seen the tomb of the unknown soldier in both locations as well the eternal flame in both locations. . .not to mention the Kremlin in one and the White House in the other!  Interesting dichotomy. . .

1 comment:

Masha said...

As someone who is a bonafide nerd complete with the shiny new paperwork to hang on the wall along with the others as soon as my thesis is done in may, I LOVE THE IDEA! :) I am a total history buff though... Undergrad degree in Russian/Eastern European history, grad in EE with focus on nationalism and still studying the same ethnic conflicts and nationalist movements after wasting a forest of trees on writing about it. I think it is a unique, insightful twist with a personal touch.