A tightly curled roll of papers bought for a dollar at a basement sale in my old Chicago neighborhood. The remnants, it seems, of an amateur geographer’s efforts to develop a new map projection. Having destroyed much of what was there in my first clumsy attempt to unroll the brittle papers, I put the fragments in a box and let them be.

Years later, I find myself still thinking about the map. The accidental steward of this small thing, I take up the dropped thread of its becoming. I carry the map fragments to a paper conservator and am given instruction on how to properly uncurl them. I find a date in pencil 10 18 21 and begin my search for the Palm whose careful handwriting marks the map.

Palm’s Projection of the Sphere. Sphere’s surface is divided into six equal caps: Projected caps form curved quadrilaterals. Map shows north polar cap in center with equatorial caps and quarters of south polar caps radiating. Shaded area indicates map of sphere’s entire surface. Unshaded area: Auxiliary maps.