Post

The Map Center
@mapcenter.com

A mom just came in SO EXCITED to find a map store bc her son would LOVE it. She tries to be coy. "My son is... Really into maps. Real special kid." I'm like, ma'am, this is a map store. Half my customers are on the spectrum. I have a trains and transit section. You're among friends.

1.6K reposts16.5K likes

Jim
@bondcliff.bsky.social

didn't have "watch a 7 1/2 minute video about a guy who bought a map store" on my to do list for tonight but I'm really glad I watched it. Best of luck to you, man. Next time this masshole is down that way I will surely stop in.

Sean Byerley
@buzzkill45.bsky.social

I saw this video and followed immediately. We recently (3yrs ago) opened a small, independent bookstore. Not quite the same, but I feel a bit of a kinship, and wish you the best of luck. One small business owner to another. ✌️

AotearoaCraig
@aotearoacraig.bsky.social

I work in a studio that makes maps and timetables - and does a lot of other comms besides - for a transport organisation. I love your story and your posts. If you aren't already on it, I'd suggest you make a lot more of these vids. Pick a map, tell its story. Share your enthusiasm.

Mischollanious Thoughts
@mischollaneous.bsky.social

I'm not affiliated with these folk, but I was very happy with a couple of the native nations maps I got from them about a decade back. After I culled my email history to find the address, I was kinda excited to see they have a sale going on.

tribalnationsmaps.comDEALS! $10 & UPComprehensive Tribal maps of the Native American and First Nations, Inuit Nations of North America, Tribes of South America , Central America, Caribbean, Indigenous , Native, Aboriginal , Indian Tribe...
Yudron Wangmo
@yudronwangmo.bsky.social

Well done! I'm going to take some pointers from this to explain my passion projects to people. And, yes, I was a geography major in college, back when we actually learned how to draw maps by hand.

Aurélien Noyer
@aureliennoyer.bsky.social

I clicked on your post before I had properly read your name, thinking "hey, this guy owns a map shop, like my friend Margaret's brother"... and, well... 😅 As they told us about you getting the store while it was happening, I agree that it's a great story!

Danne D
@quizguy66.bsky.social

Loved your story and part of me thought "is there map store merch" and part of me also thought that run of the mill merch doesn't quite jive with it - but maybe a year hence a 2026 wall calendar of favorite maps would fit the bill. Just a random idea. Keep it up!

Dr S.L. French
@p-french.bsky.social

If the words "ooh, maps!" have come out of your mouth, this is the place for you! (Yes I have uttered this phrase, once in tandem with a friend as we walked thru an outdoor market in Washington D.C.)

The Map Center
@mapcenter.com

Pawtucket RI! I actually have a piece in the shop now that I'm cleaning up- a big declassified map of Afghanistan belonging to a veteran. The backing has a few grains of Kandahar on it. I'm mounting it for him.

Karina
@karinaxlsm.bsky.social

I had to share this with my daughter. She got her job cuz they liked her college project....of a transit map. We also love maps. When I was a kid...the Rand McNally map book was my road drug. To quote her "a map store sounds sick!"

Hellhole resident
@kairsten.bsky.social

I would love to see things like John Snow's cholera outbreak map being celebrated and sold. A map that saved lives! I'm always thinking about getting one of those to hang. I'd love to see more epidemiological maps.

Hellhole resident
@kairsten.bsky.social

Also it's far away but if you're doing any online sales: Chicagoans love maps of our city. We have 77 community areas and are proud of this entire place and will buy maps of the city, especially when it doesn't cut off the south and west sides, *all* the damn time.

John Wards
@johnwards.bsky.social

My youngest would also love your store, sadly we are in the UK so it is a bit far to pop over. He's memorised all the flags of the world (yes all of them) and does games where he clicks to find countries (and US States) but with no borders.

Claire James
@claire-james.bsky.social

Are you near London? Stanfords is about 2 minutes walk from Covent Garden tube station. Because that shop’s so familiar to me it’s surprising to see so many people on this thread having their minds blown by the idea of ‘a map store’!

Joan.slp 💙
@joywillwin.bsky.social

I’m pretty sure he is not on the spectrum. I’m a speech/language pathologist and have spent the majority of my 38 year career diagnosing people on the spectrum. But as a gifted kid he was somewhat different from his peers. It’s a complicated disability for sure.

Jenny
@fiercelyeverafter.bsky.social

Hol' up. My kid is BIG into maps and history. He's a HS senior, and I have no idea what to get him that would be cool to a HS senior that he can't find in a YT video. Anyone have suggestions?? 🤞 TIA!!

suchnothing
@suchnothing.bsky.social

The other half are just undiagnosed. 1% are cartographers. But like let's be real, they're on the spectrum too. (I watched an entire 2 hour long video of some guy's train diorama with Christmas music I'll link it if anyone wants to see, he even has a snow plough train)

Daniel Convissor
@danielconvissor.bsky.social

Map Story 1... Biked backroads of western NC via USGS 1:100,000 scale maps. Has all the little streets, but still covers enough territory that you don't need to flip it around often. But it has no street names. Navigated by geography. (eg: at the top of the hill, I need to turn right.)

Hoss
@hoss71.bsky.social

When my son was a toddler, he loved the road atlas we had in our car. When he turned four, we gave him a box of old maps. Best birthday present EVER. He’s now 22 and just graduated from college with a degree in Geography, Environment and Sustainability. He would LOVE a job in a map store!

Impudent Strumpet
@impudentstrumpet.bsky.social

I went from "OMG, map stores exist!" to googling the etymology of "Pawtucket" in under 3 minutes. (I've narrowed it down to something waterfall-related in some Algonquian dialect, but haven't arrived a a consensus in under 3 minutes)

Melon The Sun
@noneofyourbusyness.bsky.social

I took a tour of the Stanley Hotel: One of the twins drew a map from memory and it was so good, he was accused of cheating. He dropped out of school. Francis and Freelan also reinvented film, the assembly line to make said film, and a steam powered car. They prob were

Kenneth Bailey
@michexposures.bsky.social

I used to get National Geographic and I used to love it when I'd get one with a map. I used to keep just the maps and had quite a collection. I have decent collection of state transportation maps in my car.

Gussie G. Crogan
@biteymcspongeface.bsky.social

I love this so much! My son absolutely loves flags. For his birthday last year his only request was to go to the local (commercial) flag shop he’d found on google maps. He was beside himself with joy and the owner said she has quite a few kids that come through with the same level of excitement ❤️

Jenn Of Ark
@jennofark.bsky.social

I'm a map person. In fact, I used to be in sales for Rand McNally, back when they had an educational division. I sold them and did teacher in-service trainings on all the things they could teach with them. Globes and atlases, too.

Jenn Of Ark
@jennofark.bsky.social

Now that I think about it, it goes even further than that. For example, I have never used a navigation app or device. I look at the map of where I'm going and put the picture in my mind and then go there.

Shaenon K. Garrity
@shaenon.bsky.social

Have you read Susan Orlean's The Library Book? There's a sweet chapter about how the LA Public Library got an enormous donation of maps from a hoarder house and hooked up with an autistic guy whose special interest is maps, and he goes in and sorts maps all day and is in bliss.

graywyvern
@graywyvern.bsky.social

i used to work at a used bookstore, & it was always fun when somebody would bring in a...collection. once it was small-press UFO books; another time it was records--every single one of them by Anton Bruckner.

Marty St George
@martysg.com

I’ve dropped some serious money at his place. I’ll tell you his story when I come down. I don’t have wall space for more maps but I can’t resist

Verain
@verain.bsky.social

There's the Chart & Map Shop in Fremantle, Western Australia. I mostly ignored it, being in a bad spot. But it moved to a much better location. Also includes travel, history, and nature books! Last time I entered, I staggered out $90 poorer and backpack noticeably heavier.

Shredgar
@shredgar.bsky.social

Good luck Andrew I'm rooting for you! My dad was a surveyor and USGS map dealer. He bought the business from his uncle. I worked for my dad as a surveyor and draftsman. My daughter grew up with maps & is now a GIS professional and the 4th generation of map makers in our family 🗺️

Steve X-Men Comics
@xmencomicssteve.bsky.social

Yes, I’ve stumbled across MapSky!! Haven’t bought many recently b/c my maps reached 2X to 3X available wall space years ago. Got very into S Augustus Mitchell, my fav I have is the big 1843 National Map of the American Republic. Such cool info on that one.

Steve X-Men Comics
@xmencomicssteve.bsky.social

And here’s the New York Public Library’s zoomable high res version of the same map. Btw, keep the NYPL open and fully funded! digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47...

digitalcollections.nypl.orgMitchell's national map of the American Republic : or United States of North America, together with maps of the vicinities of thirty-two of the principal cities and towns in the unionOne of hundreds of thousands of free digital items from The New York Public Library.
peaches - beth
@peaches18.bsky.social

my daughter worked in a very cool map store in d.c. when she was in school and said that one day someone from the government came in looking for the most recently updated map of Africa for his boss, scooter libby.

Pretty Witty Nell
@nellwitty.bsky.social

Though maps are just beautiful, aren’t they. I love where on the border the place names show how the border has moved over the years. Maos are about history, humans, adventure, hope, risk, excitement. If you like those things, maps appeal to everyone

Aeronaute 🇨🇦
@aeronaute.bsky.social

This made me nostalgic for the days when Cambridge had a map store, which has sadly closed. I was glad to see that they're still around, but didn't expect it would be close. Pawtucket, you say?! That's just two towns away! Will have to come check it out, soon.

Discovering NYC
@discovering.nyc

Oh yes I have exactly that with The Routes Not Taken by Joe Raskin. Between that and constantly pouring over The Street Railway Journal, Electric Railway Journal, etc. I pretty much have (unbuilt/destroyed) Subway Affective Disorder along with the normal brand

Brian Huntley 🇨🇦 🚲
@brianhuntley.bsky.social

There used to be a maps and travel books store in Toronto called "Open Air" which was ironic because it was below ground and absolutely STUFFED with books. I think some of the stacks were load bearing. Sadly, the building was torn down and a condo put in. I miss it.

Starre Vartan
@starrevartan.bsky.social

I'm a straight middle-aged lady who loves maps (and trains)! And did so as a kid - my grandma loved them & showed me how to read them. I navigated us alllll around Florida on a road trip when I was 8! I think often people don't show little girls maps or think they will love them but some of us do!

The Map Center
@mapcenter.com

There are studies that show that there are gender imbalances in sense of direction but they disappear after subjects are given a few weeks of map puzzle games. We assign boys lots of spatio-temporal demanding tasks and it helps them! In other words: practice makes you a better navigator, not sex.

Virgil Abt
@abtnatural.bsky.social
Virgil Abt@abtnatural.bsky.social

I was a Billy Joel fan at a young age. I didn't really understand "Angry Young Man", but I identified so hard with the lines, "And he sits in a room with a lock on the door, with his maps and his medals laid out on the floor," (a good time!) that I was just happy Billy was giving us a moment or two.

MJM
@sfmjm.bsky.social

Very cool that this is a thing for the community. A super creative single page flyer/map to the map store would be sweet. I don’t even know if it exists, but I want one.🤔😬

Kathy_NJ
@pupeyesailordog.bsky.social

My dad is bonkers about maps as was his cousin (who sadly passed a few years ago). Anytime I visited dad would make an excuse to bring out a map. Didn't know his cousin was like that until he just casually went and got his map while we were talking! That was a laugh. I like maps too.

Mi Pa
@baltusv.bsky.social

OK, does this have any diagnostic value? As a child I enjoyed reading dictionaries, libraries feel like a warm cocoon, and when I go into map shops I crave all the maps...

Honor Rhodes
@honor.bsky.social

We need, very badly, a People Who Love #Maps starter pack. They offer the best sort of advice, guidance, history and provoke wonderment. This is one of my favourites, Top Of The World. It greets any visitor as they arrive. It is a thing of beauty.

matthew-white.bsky.social
@matthew-white.bsky.social

That set off my inner map nerd... No Nunavut, so definitely 20th Century... It has both the USSR and a unified Germany, that puts it around 1990. But on the other hand, until the 1970s, there was a fiction in international law that the split inside Germany was not real, so maybe it's earlier.