Mental Map of Coal City in the 1940's

Mental maps refer to an individual’s point of view of a particular place. It is an internalized representation of some, not all, aspects of the particular place that the map is about. It usually represents the most important things about that place of the particular person doing the map; it also shows what the person knows about the location.

This particular mental map is of Coal City, Illinois in the 1940’s. The author of the map seems to really focus on certain aspects of the city, for example the church is about half the size of the entire map, which would lead one to believe that the person was probably in a religious household. The author also seems to name and describe some events that shaped his memories about the particular places in the city. It, like most mental maps, is not an accurate representation of the city but its this one person’s point of view of what it looks like.