INSERTED MAP
There are a variety of similar maps outlining popular tourist sites and buildings in this guidebook. This map blueprints the British Museum's first and second floors, labeling the rooms by name. The reader would be able to wander the British Museum knowing exactly what room they were in and how to get to the next one they wanted to go to.
Click on the image to zoom in and move around, double clicking to reorient it to its original size.
To learn more about this map, scroll down or select a button below.
INK
For maps and plans this detailed, chromolithography was probably the process used. This process was the same as black ink lithographic printing, where the surface of a metal plate or limestone was drawn on with a greasy ink and then wiped with a chemical solution that will cause the grease to attract ink and the blank spaces to expel ink and attract water. The colored ink here would have probably been a highly concentrated, waxy pigment that dries by oxidation, or exposure to oxygen.
This illustration process was used on this map the same way as on the larger fold out map on the previous webpage, only with one kind of ink, here a red based ink that comes off orange, and done by the same printers and lithographers.
To learn more about this process and similar ones, click on the button below.
THROWSHEETS
Though commonly referencing fold outs that only take up one side of the book, making it possible to see both the text and the plan or map, maps like these may have been referenced as throw sheets as well because they are only printed on one side and fold into the book within the pages that reference it, using most likely lithographic processes to print it.
These throwsheets are in great condition and easy to fold out and in, meaning that it's possible the person(s) using this book would have never visited the British Museum, or had no need of this book while doing so. These plans of the museum show rooms that are mostly labeled the same today and it would have been possible for the individual to plan their trip to the museum with particular rooms in mind and how to peruse them.
To learn more about how these were printed or bound, click on either of the buttons below.
That's all for this book!
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