Question about that 1892 German atlas page I picked up in Columbus, the one with 'German Southwest Africa' printed on it

Mason Fisher · 2026-09-22T03:50:03.099616+00:00

I always assumed those old colonial maps were just sloppy about borders, drawn by someone guessing from a desk in Berlin. Then a guy at a paper show in Columbus sold me a loose 1892 atlas page for $12, and the borders on it matched survey lines from the 1880s almost exactly, which means the mapmaker knew plenty and the errors were on purpose. Took me three maps from different cities before I believed it, but the "wrong" borders tend to show up right where a country wanted to claim ground it did not hold yet. Still not sure if that counts as a wrong map or a lie printed on purpose. Has anyone else run into a dated map where the errors look too neat to be mistakes?

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Question about that 1892 German atlas page I picked up in Columbus, the one with 'German Southwest Africa' printed on it | Dated Map Finds - Topic Shares