Map Keys 2006-02-10

A couple of cool finds that might be available at your local library

In this edition, instead of highlighting new and notable we thought we’d introduce you to two books we’d stumbled on at our local public library which are fun, fantastic histories, recently produced. Check your local libraries for these books; if you’re in the lucky position to actually purchase them, we think you shouldn’t hesitate to do so.

Read more on Map Keys 2006-02-10…

A couple of cool finds that might be available at your local library

In this edition, instead of highlighting new and notable we thought we’d introduce you to two books we’d stumbled on at our local public library which are fun, fantastic histories, recently produced. Check your local libraries for these books; if you’re in the lucky position to actually purchase them, we think you shouldn’t hesitate to do so.

These two tomes are: Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography by Ralph E. Ehrenberg and published by the National Geographic Society, and 100 Maps: The Science, Art, and Politics of Cartography Through History, edited by John O.E. Clark and published by Sterling.

Both books are worthy compendiums of cartographic history. Each has a different editorial slant, which makes for interesting and informative reading.

National Geographic’s Mapping the World

As anyone who is aware of the National Geographic Society (NGS) is also aware, NGS has been the publishers of some of the finest maps for popular consumption ever published. Accessably distributed through the world-famous National Geographic magazine, each map tends to inform as much as entertain. So, if any organziation is qualified to produce a cartographic history for the masses, it should be this one. Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography does not disappoint.

Tracing the development of mapping from the Babylonian world map of ca. 600 BC to the present, many signature examples of famous cartography through to the present are exhibited, amongst them the Peutinger chart of the Roman Empire; T-O mappaemundi and “Portlolan” charts; Ptolemy’s world map; William Smith’s amazing geological map of England; early maps of the USA and war and thematic maps, and modern aerial photo maps, computer imagery, satellite technology and the Internet.

The approach is one of an informative docent leading you through the best cartography museum you’ve heretofore known, with historical information and context. The NGS has a reputation for beautiful photography and book production which further stands the book in good stead.

By The Numbers:

Title: Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography
By: Ralph E. Ehrenberg
Published: National Geographic Society, Washington DC, 2006. 256pp.
ISBN: 0-7922-6525-4
Availability: Purchase from Amazon via this link (USD $26.40), or check out from your local library
The Bottom Line: A high-quality, well annotated, photo-rich history of all important things cartographical, up to the standard one would expect from the NGS

100 Maps

Taking a different approach is the tome 100 Maps: The Science, Art, and Politics of Cartography Through History, edited by John O.E. Clark. Also a chronological history including important maps and developments, as the tagline indicates, it takes a deeper, critical look at why maps were important to peoples in the scientific, artistic, and political spheres of the time.

It makes some of the expected stops but many unexpected ones. For instance, in discribing the 1801-03 circumnavigation of Australia by Flinders, an event celebrated nationally in 2002 Down Under, the writers connect it to developments in Europe and Captain Cook’s explorations in some detail, giving the reader an idea of the zeitgeist that then obtained. Similarly, WWII maps are described in terms of the purposes they served and the factors they illuminated, for example, why Hitler did not drive the Allies into the sea at Dunkirk (as it turns out, the substrata of “Ypres clay” would have meant disaster to any tank advance if any rain fell).

A paragraph in the cover blurb perhaps explains it best:

What all maps in this collection have in common is that they tell a story. The maps of the American West created by Lewis and Clark and the maps of India drawn up by the British are two significant cartographic achievements that capture major events as art….the maps are organized to illustrate chronologic history. They also sometimes reveal the scientific and political background of thier time.

By The Numbers:

Title: 100 Maps: The Science, Art, and Politics of Cartography Throughout History
Edited By: John O.E. Clark
Published: Sterling Publishing, New York, 2006. 254pp.
ISBN: 1-4027-2885-9
Availability: Purchase from Amazon via this link (USD $16.40), or check out from your local library
The Bottom Line: Deep, insighful contextual commentary makes the importance of maps through history come alive. Great selection of both the expected and the unexpected.