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From: Jackie Gavin-Smyth
To: Bill Rankin
Subject: maps and maps and maps

I'm reminded of one of my projects and might suppose that you'd have some interest in it: a map of all the rail lines in Chicago circa 1955, traced off of a colorful Rand McNally.

I live on the South Side now and many of these tracks are still there, although some, like the 39th street connector, is long gone though the viaduct walls remain. Right now, I'm working on an inset of this map which is the 1911 layout of tracks surrounding the stockyards at the end of Bubbly Creek.

I doubt I did it consciously, but my map now reminds me of a piece by Kathy Prendergast I saw in London years ago. All place names have been removed except those that contain the word lost in them, i.e. Lost Mountain, Lost Creek, Lost Highway...

She also has made some drawings of just roads in capitol cities thus lifting away all context in a similar vein to this. So yeah, years after the fact, I've decided that that's what I'm going for.

sooner, rather than later,
jgs