Key Moments and Maps: Traditions of Cartography
Key Moments
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| John Snow, 1854 Cholera Map of London, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_%28physician%29,
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html |
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| Marie Tharp, Ocean Floor Mapping, http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr078.html, http://www.earth.columbia.edu/news/2006/images/HeezenTharp_900.jpg | |||
| William Smith, Geological Map of Britain,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Smith_%28geologist%29 |
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| Babylonian clay tablet, http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/103.html, For other examples, see: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/ | |||
| Harry Beck, Tube Map of London, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map |
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| Charles Joseph Minard, Napolean's March, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Minard,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png |
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| Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the
People in London, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Booth_%28philanthropist%29,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Labour_of_the_People_in_London |
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First maps |
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| Babylonian clay tablet |
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/103.html,
For other examples, see: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/ |
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A rubbing taken from a 4,000-year-old stone tablet in Sian, the ancient capital of China, represents one of the oldest extant maps. Made in 1935 by Prof. W. B. Pettus of the College of Chinese Studies at Peking and given to the Library by George B. Cressey, Professor of Geography, Syracuse University, the map was apparently prepared for pedagogical purposes. It delineates the provinces of China which paid tribute to Emperor Yu, the founder in 2205 b.c. of the first legendary dynasty. (Library of Congress, Vault Map Collection) |
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Detail of manuscript Chinese map, "Ten-Thousand-Mile Map of Maritime Defenses," drawn during the Qing Dynasty, ca. 1705. This map, which is one of eleven maps mounted in an accordion-folded album fifty-one feet in length, shows military defenses along the Chinese coast from Hainan Island to the Shandong Peninsula. (Library of Congress, Arthur W. Hummel Collection) |
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Detail of Japanese manuscript scroll map (35 by 939 cm.) showing the Tokaido, the main land-sea route from Edo (Tokyo) to Nagasaki, with Fujiyama in the background. Kyoho period (1716- 1736). (Vault Map Collection) |
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| Polynesian Stick Chart |
http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/stick_charts/ |
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| Time Chart of Ancient Cartography |
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/104.html |
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Medieval Maps-Cosmographical Representations and other Concerns
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Hereford Mappa Mundi, about 1300,
Hereford Cathedral, England. A classic "T-O" map with
Jerusalem at center and east toward the top. Taken
from Whitfield (1994, p. 21). See also: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/226A.html
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_Mappa_Mundi
and http://www.herefordcathedral.org/ |
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Al-Idrisi's map of the world,
1456. Al-Idrisi
was a muslim scholar in the court of King Roger II of
Sicily. He completed a map of the known world in the
12th century. Drawn with south at the top, this later
example has been inverted for easier viewing. Taken
from Whitfield (1994, p. 29). http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/219.html |
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Northern regions map from S.
Munster's Cosmographia (1588). North Atlantic
region is essentially a Viking
view dating from the 12-14th centuries. One of
the last wood-engraved maps, done in the style of
copper-plate engraving. Published posthumously by H.
Petri (son in law) in Basle, Switzerland. |
Renaissance Maps: An Increasing Pace of Innovation
The invention of printing made maps much
more widely available beginning in the 15th century. Maps were
at first printed using carved wooden blocks. Printing with
engraved copper plates appeared in the 16th century and
continued to be the standard until photographic techniques
were developed. Major advances in cartography took place
during the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Map makers responded with navigation charts, which depicted
coast lines, islands, rivers, harbors, and features of sailing
interest. Compass lines and other navigation aids were
included. Such maps were held in great value for economic,
military, and diplomatic purposes, and so were often treated
as national or commercial secrets--classified or proprietary
maps.
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Chart of northwest Africa and
Western Europe from Jean
André Brémond's manuscript portolan
atlas compiled in Marseilles in 1670. (Vellum
Chart Collection) Nautical chart of the Mediterranean Sea ( left and right ) from Le Neptune françois by the artist-engraver Romein de Hooghe. Part of a two-volume work prepared initially under official French auspices but re-engraved for commercial use, it was published privately by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam in 1693. Although the Dutch dominated the market for charts and sea atlases throughout the seventeenth century, French hydrographers were the first to place hydrographic surveying on a scientific basis. (Atlas Collection) |
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The first "modern" whole world maps began to appear in the
early 16th century, following voyages by Columbus and others
to the New World. Gerardus
Mercator
of Flanders (Belgium) was the leading cartographer of the
mid-16th century. He developed a cylindrical projection that
is still widely used for navigation charts and global maps. He
published a map of the world in 1569 based on this projection.
Many other map projections were soon developed.
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Waldseemüller's world map,
1507, the first map to incorporate New World
discoveries and use name "America." This map is based
on the Ptolemaic projection, but does not show the
entire globe. http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/waldexh.html |
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Martin
Waldseemüller's 1513 edition of Ptolemy was
a landmark work that contributed to major advances in
both Renaissance geography and map printing. Published
by Johann Schott in Strassburg, it depicts for the
first time in an atlas format the newly discovered
continents of North and South America connected by a
coastline. (Library of Congress, Atlas Collection)
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World map of Rosselli, 1508, the
first map to show the entire globe. A mythical
southern continent is shown, and ocean areas are much
too small. Nonetheless, it is a true world map. It
places Cuba and Haiti off Chinese coast. http://www.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/notizie/Cartografia
Web/Rinascimento/Rosselli/RosselliPL.htm
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The voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci dramatically changed the world map. One of the earliest printed maps to incorporate this new world view was Johann Ruysch's map which is found in the 1507 reprinting of the 1490 Rome edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, both of which are represented in the division. It is believed that Ruysch, a native of Antwerp, accompanied Bristol seamen on a voyage to the great fishing banks off the coast of Newfoundland in about 1500. (Library of Congress, Atlas Collection) |
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Diego Gutiérrez's celebrated map of the Western Hemisphere entitled Americae sive qvartae orbis partis nova et exactissima descriptio . One of two known copies, it was engraved by the great Flemish artist Hieronymus Cock in 1562 and has the distinction of being the first map to carry the name California. At one time it was owned by the Duke of Gotha. (Library of Congress, Vault Map Collection) |
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One of the great cartographic treasures of the Library of Congress, this explorer's chart of the northeast coast of North America from Cape Sable to Cape Cod was drawn by Samuel de Champlain in 1607. (Library of Congress, Henry Harrisse Collection) |
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World map in projection devised by
Mercator
(1569) . On this projection, all straight lines
are true bearings. This results in great size
distortion toward the poles, which cannot be shown. |
Into the modern period
Maps were for very practical purposes--economic development, conquest, ownership, promotion |
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| USGS
created on March 3, 1879 for the "classification of the
public lands, and examination of the geological structure,
mineral resources, and products of the national domain"
particularly the large territories added to the U.S. by
the Louisiana Purchase in
1803 and the Mexican-American
War in 1848. Detailed 24,000-scale mapping for
the entire nation (excluding Alaska) was not completed
until 1992. See http://historical.mytopo.com/
or http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/nhtopos.htm/.
for samples. |
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Sketch map of the battlefield of Gettysburg by Jedediah Hotchkiss, chief topographer of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, shows troop positions, July 1-2, 1863. Confederate divisions and corps are named, but Federal commands are not named. (Library of Congress, Jedediah Hotchkiss Collection) |
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Bird's eye or panoramic maps:
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panhome.html
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Hand-colored lithographic map of Deer Creek Township in Tazewell County, Illinois, showing names of individual landowners, along with a stylized view of a prosperous farmstead in a nearby township. Published in 1873 by the firm of Alfred T. Andreas, one of the pioneers in the development of illustrated county and state atlases, this atlas is representative of the county land ownership atlases which became popular during the last half of the nineteenth century. (Library of Congress, Atlas Collection) |
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Panoramic view of the Grand Canyon by William H. Holmes from Capt. Clarence E. Dutton's Atlas to Accompany the Monograph on the Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District (Washington, 1882). The leading scientific illustrator of topographic and geologic phenomena for the Great Western Surveys following the Civil War, Holmes later became the first director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. (Library of Congress, Atlas Collection) |
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During the last two decades of the
nineteenth century, Griffith Morgan Hopkins and others
published detailed city atlases including this 1887
atlas of Washington, D.C. This detail
from a sheet of the U.S. Capitol and vicinity
includes the outline of the planned Library of
Congress which was not completed until ten years
later. The home of the Librarian of Congress,
Ainsworth R. Spofford, is identifed at the northeast
corner of block 691. (Library of Congress, Atlas
Collection) |
| Sanborn Maps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps
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Increasing speed with which new information was gathered and incorporated into maps |
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Rapid adoption of new technologies |
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| U.S. Bureau of Census, DIME
to TIGER files |
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| USGS, DLG, DEM, DOQQ |
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History of Cartography Project, University of
Wisconsin, http://www.geography.wisc.edu/histcart/
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To what degree to maps implicitly symbolize our values, worldview and assumptions about how the world is organized and operates?Can these values and assumptions be used or manipulated so that maps disguise or hide knowledge and understanding? |
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Sources:
Aber, J.S. 1999. Brief History of Maps and Cartography, http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/map/h_map/h_map.htm
Library of Congress, An Illustrated Guide to Geography and
Maps, http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/guide/gmilltoc.html