Category Archives: Handmade Maps

The new stash includes No. 367 to No. 373, a nice, clean run along Gold Way from North Oakland into Polish Hill. Trivia: No. 373 is a memorial pasted onto the ghost of No. 242. The Master List. And the Geometric … Continue reading →

Improbably, the protractors continue to tickle the public imagination. Viewings to these posts increased sharply this week after months of limited activity. I attribute this primarily to Assignment Pittsburgh including the protractors on their weekly photo scavenger hunt, but also … Continue reading →

With the arrival of spring, construction crews are painting and scraping and cleaning the city, leaving us with an array of newly ghosted protractors. The updated Master List. The ghosts:

For I while now I’ve suspected that Mulberry Way, a discontinuous alley running the length of the Strip District, held a wealth of unfound protractors. With the lovely weather yesterday, I took a ride down there to check it out. … Continue reading →

Coming down Friendship Avenue on Monday, I noticed that a construction crew had moved the trashcan from its spot on the corner and I got a bad feeling. Sure enough, No. 73 was missing. This loss is especially sad, seeing … Continue reading →

Even after all this time, I still occasionally turn down an alley and discover a run of protractors that must have been pasted up months ago. The Master List now includes more than two hundred entries, but the highest protractor … Continue reading →

This is the first of several updates planned for this week, including some gaps filled and a charming discovery that should put a smile on the face of protractorites young and old. I found No. 148 in prolific Mulberry Way … Continue reading →

It is time, once again, to honor those protractors ghosted in recent months by property owners and construction crews. So long No. 44, No. 53, No. 79, No. 88 and No 183.

The image above comes from the new Protractor Map that will part of the Hyperlocal Mapping Party at Assemble on Wednesday, January 11, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. If you are a kid, or have a kid, or think like a … Continue reading →

After an early autumn hiatus, the Protractor Map triumphantly returns to The Ongoing History of Pittsburgh, coaxed from its hibernation by three exciting developments. First, people continue to fill in gaps by finding protractors. I found No. 37 and No. … Continue reading →

The semi-circle of life: new protractors go up and old protractors come down. I found four ghosts around town, including the one above. I also found three previously unnoticed protractors: No. 44, No. 217 and No. 265. Finally, a new … Continue reading →

It’s been a while, but the absence has been fruitful. First, the oddities. The image above is of No. 118m, m for “modified,” a protractor on the Graham Street Bridge that someone decorated in tribal face paint. The ghost of … Continue reading →

Well, they just keep coming. Andy sent in a tip about No. 48, connecting a thread from North Oakland to Schenley Park. I found No. 274 on Fifth Avenue and, based on The Master List, suspect it helps connect the North … Continue reading →

The original.

The search is winding down, but searchers continue to report discoveries.

My friend and roommate Corey typically dreams up imaginatively sadistic outcomes for this venture. In one, I awake to find a protractor embedded in my chest. In another, a black protractor appears in the sky above our apartment (think Dark … Continue reading →

The other night I dreamed I found protractor No. 9 (green) under the light switch in my childhood bedroom. I asked about it at dinner and one of the women in my family took credit for the whole thing. She … Continue reading →

The protractor pictured above is an anomaly for three reasons. First, it’s glued to the ground, a rarity. Second, it’s the only protractor found to date glued to concrete, rather than metal. Third, it’s the only protractor found to date … Continue reading →

First: The twins, No. 64 and No. 127, are gone. Next: Several sources from the bike riding community recently discovered a run of very high numbers approaching and then crossing the Monongahela River. They begin in South Oakland and follow … Continue reading →

First, a memorial: No. 134 now resides beneath a layer of paint. An interesting thing about the protractors: when a wall gets painted, they are the only tag that remains. I walked to Polish Hill Arts Festival on Sunday and … Continue reading →

The Protractor Map is mostly an act of documentation, but it occasionally becomes an act of conjecture. Sometimes protractors get painted over or peeled away or broken off, and in those instances I try my best to deduce the number and … Continue reading →

The protractors are easier to find than to notice. Being small and flat, you can be walking on one side of the street and miss protractors on the other side of the street, or be walking in one direction and … Continue reading →

On a run through the Bloomfield Hollows last week, I found Protractor No. 111 glued to a wall half-hidden behind some overgrowth. A protracting friend told me he found several others while walking a dog through down there later that … Continue reading →

The Protractor Map is back online. I originally removed the postings because I didn’t want the material to become a fulcrum used to push something I like over a cliff. Over the past week, though, I’ve not only found many … Continue reading →

If you’ve come here looking for more information about the protractors, I’m sorry to say I took the postings down this morning. The protractors initially caught my interest because searching for them felt like stumbling onto a charming citywide mystery. … Continue reading →

One of the sub-mysteries of the protractors is the location of No. 196, seen in the top image from a website about Bloomfield graffiti. This afternoon I found the location, but not the protractor. Whoever removed it did so cleanly. … Continue reading →

I trekked around the North Side yesterday to pick up the huge stash of protractors found by everyone at the Bike Pittsburgh blog (particularly fungicyclist). Mark came along, as did a reporter from the Tribune-Review who is writing an article … Continue reading →

I found this one on a bench in Friendship Park today, number removed. If you haven’t swung by the Bike Pittsburgh blog recently, please do so. Fungicyclist and my friend Mark have been incredibly productive on both the high and … Continue reading →

The other day I saw some city workers fixing this utility box and the next day the Protractor No. 93 was gone. It’s surprising that more haven’t been removed, I guess. Also, Ross found No. 95 on the section of … Continue reading →

Well, well, well. So two commenters at Bike Pittsburgh have discovered a fresh crop of very high numbers charting a course through the North Side. I hope to add pictures soon.

FIRST: “In Chinatown, in the dark window of a herbalist, she thought she saw it on a sign among ideographs. But the streetlight was dim. Later, on a sidewalk, she saw two of them in chalk, 20 feet apart. Between … Continue reading →

The Great Protractor Hunt is now consuming many productive hours from many hardworking Pittsburghers, and I greatly appreciate their camaraderie in this obsession. Onward: My friend Ross discovered three protractors this week, No. 128 (seen above), No. 209 at Coral and … Continue reading →

There is much news to report. First, we’ve found two more protractors. No. 86 (seen above) recently appeared on the staircase from Ellsworth to Highland, halfway down from its brother, No. 87 (also seen above, a rare double). No. 180 … Continue reading →

The protractors are definitely proliferating. I believe this for three reasons. First, I recently found No. 185.2 (another duplicate, see No. 82.1 and No. 82.2) in a spot I pass often. Second, some recent finds look less-weathered and feature different … Continue reading →

After the jump is The Master List for The Protractor Map, updated as of Nov. 19, 2013.

The hunt for protractors is both slowing and broadening. I’m having increasing difficulty finding unfound entries, but friends continue to come through. I thank Stephanie M. (No. 117), Corey W. (No. 182) and Anna R. (No. 222, the new highest … Continue reading →

Andy Johnson found three more protractors — No. 56, No. 90 and No. 187 — including another ripped loose (although not completely this time). Corey W. found No. 202. (EDIT — February 26, 2012: No. 90 is actually No. 190.) … Continue reading →

I crossed Graham Street over the East Busway on a whim this morning and found three consecutive protractors affixed to the bridge, No. 118, No. 119 and No. 120. Since I previously found No. 121 on a utility box at … Continue reading →

Last night I dreamed that my landlord took responsibility for the protractors. I caught him gluing No. 338 to the railing of a bridge overlooking a wooded valley. I asked him why he had been gluing protractors to things. He … Continue reading →

I’ve added another nine protractors to the map, including three (82.1, 183, 185) found, photographed and submitted by Andy Johnson. There are, oddly, two No. 82’s.

Well, it’s come to this. For months I’ve been finding numbered protractors epoxied onto flat surfaces all over the East End. I’ve asked around, but no one seems to know what they’re all about. A bit of poking around the … Continue reading →