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Era: Thematic & Scientific Revolution·Historical mapmaker: Otto G. Lindberg & Ernest Alpers (General Drafting Company)·Year: 1930·Image reuse: CC BY-SA 3.0

Agloe, New York General Drafting Road Map (1930s)

"The copyright trap paper town that materialized into physical reality"

Inserted at an unpaved intersection in Delaware County, NY to detect plagiarism, 'Agloe' became real when a store owner built the 'Agloe General Store' after seeing the name on the map.

Interactive Specimen Pan & ZoomAccession: G3801.P2 1935 .G4
Orientation: North-Up
Modern OpenStreetMap map of the area associated with Agloe; this is not a 1930 General Drafting original.
OpenStreetMap contributors; via Wikimedia Commons·Reproduction·Image source record
ZOOM: 100%Repository Archive
Notable Cartographic Signatures
  • The name 'Agloe' printed at the intersection of NY Route 206 and Morton Hill Road
  • Esso (Standard Oil) corporate road map cartography
Image credit and reuse

Agloe area — OpenStreetMap map

OpenStreetMap contributors; via Wikimedia Commons

CC BY-SA 3.0 under the individual source record. Metadata added; image pixels unchanged. Display crop may vary by viewport. Retain source credit and terms. Historical mapmaking context is separate from this image reproduction.

Source recordLicence terms

The Rhetorical & Ideological Argument

"An intellectual property weapon proving that maps possess the power to conjure physical human settlements into existence through cartographic self-fulfilling prophecy."

Explicit Features
  • The name 'Agloe' printed at the intersection of NY Route 206 and Morton Hill Road
  • Esso (Standard Oil) corporate road map cartography
Intentional Omissions
  • Indication that the town was an artificial copyright watermark

Physical Specimen & Geodesy

Projection:
Lambert Conformal Conic
Orientation Axis:
North-Up
Physical Medium:
Color offset lithograph road map for Esso
Original Physical Dimensions:
600 × 450 mm
Custodial Repository:
Library of Congress / Exxon Archive
Accession: G3801.P2 1935 .G4
View Full Record at Repository

Interdisciplinary Context & Connections

Jurisprudence & CadastreTESTS
Copyright Trap Infringement Precedents
Narrative SemioticsPROVES
Ontological Materialization of Fiction
Academic Provenance: General Drafting Company (1935)