In an article posted on the ABAA’s Web site, Elisabeth Burdon of oldimprints.com argues that MacDonald Gill, the artist responsible for the 1913 Wonderground Map of London Town, had a “profound” influence on later pictorial mapmaking. “Not only did Gill’s map spawn a clearly identifiable genre that was to appear in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Australia in the 1920s and 1930s, it marked a resurgence of decorative mapmaking that lasted throughout the century and beyond. In honoring Gill’s creation of the prototype, it seems appropriate to use the term ‘wonder map’ in discussing this novel genre,” she writes. Read the article, see this larger scan of the map and feel a little wonder at this piece of whimsy. Via MapHist.