Atlas

If you are a book preservationist, please close your ears.

Years ago I purchased an old atlas from a thrift store.  It totally falling apart and held together with rubber bands, so I bought it for a few dollars because I knew I could use it for something.  Over the years the covers became advent calendars and various pages were turned into cards.  Last week I decided to really get down to business and cut apart most of it to make a garland.

Holly, surveying the destruction

When I got to the page for Arctic and Antarctic regions, I noticed that Antarctica was not so much a charted continent as a white blob.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that Shackleton’s furthest south coordinates were marked near the pole which means that the atlas was published prior to Amundsen and Scott reaching the pole in 1911 and 1912, respectively.  I feel pretty sick about cutting apart the atlas now, but at least I saved that page to frame. 

I think the maps got Holly into exploration mode.  To infinity and beyond!