THINKING
In my recent article on James Monteith I was arguing in favor of bringing back some diagrams in the margins of maps that were more popular in the 19th century than today. Among them was the elevation profile, or terrain cross section, that Monteith would routinely put in the bottom margin in his later maps. In my recent talk to the Washington Map Society (and a few other groups), I included the above detail from an 1885 Monteith map, in part because the Himalayas make a good profile, the misaligned printing is interesting, and because Afghanistan has been in the news.
Today I finally got my copy of the 2020 NACIS Atlas of Design and, on top of being astounded at the beauty of so many of the maps, I noted that there were several examples of elevation profiles. Of particular note, I would praise: Jakob Listabarth's The Lost Treasures of Isla del Coco, the Central Park Squirrel Census, and RJ Andrews' Cross-sections through California.
So I stand somewhat corrected. As much as most of our 20th century maps have anemic and unadorned margins, there are some excellent designers out there making good use of the full page and keeping old techniques alive.