Maps and globes in a couple of unlikely places

     Not too far from my home in central NY is the small town of Corning NY If you've never heard of Corning before you certainly are familiar with their most popular product, Gorilla Glass that being the glass that you are probably looking through right now if you are reading this on any smart phone or tablet. Corning hosts a wonderful museum dedicated to the art and history of glass making.  One of their newest exhibits at the Corning Museum of Glass  is an art installation based on a celestial map.

     This wonderful artwork by Kiki Smith is a 3D version of the celestial sphere we are used to seeing spectacular in person because it is almost 20 feet in diameter, taking up a room of it's own to display!


Up the road a bit from Corning is the city of Rochester NY  and the home of the Strong National Museum of Play , it's a children's museum but so much more in addition to a place for kids they have an extensive collection of antique toys, included in that collection is the worlds first jigsaw puzzle pictured below

     This puzzle is an amazing relic, I love it because it was teaching geography 275 years ago.  Similar puzzles have been made in many variations over the years, in fact they also had this one on display from the late 19th century from America:

    Keep your eye out in your travels you just never know where an interesting map or globe will pop up.   I seem to see them everywhere.........