I’ve always liked globes; I think they’re a good reference resource and worthwhile to explore from time to time. I had a ‘classroom’ model in the past that was damaged by humidity in storage, so all I have right now is this decorative model at right, obtained by The Girlfriend someplace. It’s quite snazzy, way above the aesthetics of Walkabout Studios, but also small and not terribly detailed, even when the polished stone facets are damn cool. I should motorize it though…
What I’ve wanted, though again, way above aesthetics, is one of those floorstand ‘table’ globes in a tasteful wood frame, the kind that you’d find in the study of a Bri’ish gentleman about a century ago to keep track of the Empire – though, of course, a little more current. And not one of those asinine bar-globes either, trying to look learnéd while serving no purpose but to hide the hooch, which is an alcoholic’s idea of ‘tasteful.’ Such real globes, when they can be found, tend to run out of the price range that I’ll allow for something of that nature.
Now, when I say, “All I have right now,” above, I’m kind of lying, because the other day at a thrift store, we found a smaller globe in a nice wood tabletop rack, the little brother of a floorstand model but otherwise pretty comparable. Moreover, it’s illuminated from within and shows the undersea terrain when lit, as well as having that older model beige base color instead of the classroom blue seas and so on. I’m only kind of lying because it is to be my christmas present, but since I was the one who spotted it, there’s no surprise, and I’m re-staining the wood stand at present.
But here’s where the fun comes in, because it has no date and is an indeterminate number of years old. Obviously not too old, since it’s illuminated (and not by lamp oil,) but clearly not terribly current either. This began a bit of research to determine just how old. It wasn’t hard, but it took a little exploring. Come with me as we suss this out.
Any and every globe presents a particular moment in time, since countries and borders change fairly frequently – and they also may represent a particular political perspective as well. Thankfully, this is enough of a common pursuit that a few websites had information handy, such as this one and this one [pdf download], which are largely in agreement. I knew enough right offhand to know that, since the USSR is intact here, it predated 1990.
There’s Ukraine, still part of the USSR, as well as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, but the latter two dissolved into separate countries a little after the USSR collapsed, so no help there. Also, note the spelling of ‘Rumania’ [‘Romania’ in most English-speaking sources], which is a little curious because I’ve never seen that spelling, and would have thought that might be either a pre-WWII thing or fairly recent.
But okay, let’s work down the list a bit.
The New Hebrides islands became Vanuatu in 1980, so we’re talking older than that.
However, I’d found that Vietnam was unified instead of being separated into North and South, which occurred in 1976 after the US withdrawal, and as seen here, Djibouti exists where it used to be French Somaliland – that happened in 1977, so newer than that.
There were a few misleading things on the lists, such as Belize: while it had retained that name from quite some time back, it was administered by the British Empire and also known as British Honduras until 1981 when it became independent, but non-UK sources still tended to label it as Belize regardless. Other island groups were much the same way, mostly differentiated as part of the Empire or administered colonies by British sources, but not consistently among others, and this globe is distinguished as a product of the US – just, without a year.
Ah, but this image alone pegs the year pretty well. The Gilbert and Phoenix Island groups became Kiribati in 1979, so older than that, but the British Ellice Island group became Tuvalu in late 1978, so the globe was created after that. Thus, we have a pretty firm date of 1979. Not historically, vintage old (falling between Star Wars and The Empire Strike Back from my own key perspective points,) but just a few years shy of a half-century, which isn’t too bad. It certainly shouldn’t be used to drive across Europe or sail in the Pacific, but those weren’t within my plans anyway. When I road-trip across Europe, I’ll have a much bigger, more detailed globe with me. And then get stopped a lot for it to get searched for booze…