The 21st International Conference on the History of Cartography

Abstract

Maps showing a town together with its surroundings form a distinctive, if diverse, genre, the environs map. Such maps can be described according to function or intended use and include military, administrative, judicial, economic and communications maps as well as maps associated with the development of recreation and with local improvement projects. In this paper, attention is focused on two types of environs maps from Vienna: those showing projected hydrological schemes and those prepared primarily for use in connection with recreational facilities for the townsfolk.     

Chronicle for 1993

Abstract

Theory is not a goal in itself but a means of enriching the history of cartography by stimulating new research questions and objectives. In this paper the concept of ‘transparent maps’ (carriers of an image of the external reality of the world) and ‘opaque maps’ is introduced. The notion is approached structurally (standards of graphical representation, drawing, geometry, text); through the sociology of the map (map makers, institutions, the public); and through seeing maps in their cultural and historical context (an approach which raises issues of the definitional boundaries of the history of cartography and which is arguably one of the most stimulating perspectives today as fostered by, in particular, contributors to the History of Cartography). Finally, attention is drawn to three important topics for the research agenda: the links between maps and culture; maps as a language of communication and as instruments of power; and the links between perception, logic and mnemonics.     

Can Lost Maps Speak? Toward a Cultural History of Map Reading in Medieval China

Despite the fact that virtually no Chinese maps have survived from the first millennium, it is nonetheless possible to reconstruct a rich context associated with their production, use and perception from a variety of written sources. Three cases from the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce) are presented in this article in which the characteristics of the missing maps emerge through their associated texts, which have outlasted them. These examples include two documents that once accompanied maps presented to the emperor and an anecdote that refers to a map of the remote southern frontier. They demonstrate that the maps were designed not only to encapsulate imperial territory but also to serve as guideposts for aspirational travel. They were also perceived by their users as invitations to experiences both desirable and undesirable.     

Maps and the assessment of parish rates in nineteenth‐century England and Wales

Abstract

This paper reviews the role of maps in the assessment of rates levied for the relief of poverty in nineteenth‐century England and Wales and examines the relationships between tithe maps and parochial assessment maps both in general terms and with specific reference to Poor Law unions in the county of Kent. An appendix lists 207 parochial assessment maps made in connection with the levy of poor rates which are extant in the public archives and libraries of England and Wales. Other ‘lost’ examples of this genre awaiting discovery in parish churches and vestries will undoubtedly add to this small but important constituent of the corpus of English and Welsh cadastral maps.     

Chronicle for 1999

Abstract

Two German maps of southern Africa, one official, the other private, came to the attention of the British government in the 1890s and raised questions of boundary delineation. In both instances, they provoked a response—diplomatic dispute and internal policy decision—but in neither case did the maps do more. They actively initiated contention but were passive devices thereafter.     

Übersicht der Tätigkeit internationaler Geographenkongresse auf dem Gebiete der Geschichte der Kartographie

Abstract

This paper surveys the career of Benedetto Bordon as a miniaturist, designer of woodcuts, and cartographer. Although from Padua, Bordon worked primarily in Venice where he illuminated religious and classical texts and official ducal documents destined for Venetian noblemen. The writer argues that Bordon designed woodcut illustrations for books printed by Aldus Manutius and others, in addition to the woodcut maps in his 1528 book on islands in the MediteiTanean, Atlantic, and Caribbean. Bordon's lost world map of 1508 is discussed in relation to the map‐making activities of Francesco Rosselli, the Florentine miniaturist and engraver who was in Venice in 1504 and 1508, and in relation to a circle of Venetian scholars and patricians interested in Ptolemy's Cosmographia and in the mapping of the New World.     

Nicolaas Geelkerken

Abstract

Intelligence work is based on the gathering of information, including cartographic material for preparing new maps. This paper examines copies and re‐editions, produced by British, Egyptian, and PLO military authorities, of topographical maps of Israel on a scale 1:100,000, which were published from the later part of the Mandate (1930s and 1940s), up to the 1980s. Certain features in the copies reflect distinctive political attitudes to the local situation or illustrate a lack of cartographic awareness of their significance. No serious attempts were made to hide the sources of the maps.     

Theory and the history of cartography

Abstract

Cartographic history has been dominated by an empiricism that treats the nature of maps as self‐evident and which denies the presence of any theory. In contrast, this paper argues that theories lie at the root of all empirical study whether or not they are acknowledged. The linear, progressive model of cartographic development, for example, is not a law deduced from historical evidence; if it were it would be easily and quickly dismissed. It derives instead from our cultural beliefs concerning the nature of maps, which is to say from our unexamined theories. Historians of cartography need to be critical of their assumptions and preconceptions. Theoretical discussions in the history of cartography must address not whether we should use theory at all but to which theories we should adhere. It is inadequate simply to knock theories down. We must establish a debate in which old understandings of maps, of their creation, and of their use are replaced by better (that is, more consistent and coherent) theories.     

The China Maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville: Origins and Supporting Networks

Abstract

By 1735, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville had produced forty-one maps of the Qing Empire, or China, a process significantly more complex than scholars have hitherto appreciated. A close study of d’Anville’s maps and their originals has revealed their relationship with the different versions of a Chinese atlas, the first of which was completed early in 1718, the outcome of nearly a decade of collaborative surveying between officials of the Qing Empire and European missionaries. The precise origins of some of the maps are identified for the first time, and the network behind the remarkable intercontinental exchange of cartographical material that allowed d’Anville to produce his China maps is also discussed, thereby illustrating the central role of the French Jesuits, as well as the connection with St Petersburg.     

New books received for review

Abstract

Geological information was first printed in colour on a map in 1820 but serious efforts to print geological maps in multiple colours began in Europe only in the 1840s. Increased geological mapping activity created the need to print more maps by cheaper methods, while general advances in lithographic colour printing provided the means. Better colour registration, transparency, range, permanence and distinctiveness were attained in the 1840s and 1850s by technical innovations and also by new design strategies. Consequently, as printed colour replaced hand colour as the norm, it also influenced the look of the geological map.     

Some reflections on mental maps

ABSTRACT

The point of departure for this essay is a map drawn in 1963 by the writer’s maternal grandfather. It represents the village of Berg, located in northern Sweden, and depicts his activities as a farmer and hunter. But it is also based on grandfather’s collective knowledge of the village. In what follows I will examine mental maps of microspaces that reflect what is important to an individual or to the members of a community. One shows how Aivilik Inuits perceive their local environment; another set of urban maps from Los Angeles, California, are based on the views of residents in different areas. The social divides become strikingly apparent on these mental maps. Among the conspicuous features of my grandfather’s map are the images he drew to supplement the various geographical locations he laid out. In this respect one might compare medieval mappae mundi that is, maps of the world representing compendiums of all things worth knowing. I also consider the appearance of mysterious gaps on grandfather’s map, that is, “the silences”. Many general perspectives on mental mapping are suggested by a consideration of the map my grandfather drew.     

Engaging children to voice their sense of place through location-based story making with photo-story maps

ABSTRACT

Sense of place is neither linear nor rooted in time. One way for children to voice their sense of place is through location-based stories with plots structured in space, rather than time. Since mobile devices are already ingrained in the everyday lives of many children in the U.S., a mobile application offers a familiar medium to engage children in location-based story making. Here, we present photo-story maps, our approach to leveraging an existing story-map mobile application as a research tool to collect and analyze children’s stories about sense of place. We found that photo-story maps facilitate the organization of nonlinear location-based stories, promote an inclusive story-making process through a mobile application, support triangulation of varied digital story elements, and provide dynamic interview material. We suggest photo-story maps demonstrate the value of location-based story making and the potential of familiar mobile applications for reducing the barriers to including children in research.     

Saxton's Maps of England and Wales: The Accuracy of Anglia and Britannia and Their Relationship to Each Other and to the County Maps

ABSTRACT

From measurements of the graticules on Saxton's two general maps of England and Wales—the atlas map Anglia and the wall map Britannia—together with other evidence, it is argued that neither map was drawn according to any specific projection, but that both were effectively produced as ‘flat-earth’ maps with the graticules superimposed afterwards. Digital versions of Saxton's maps and of a modern map, the 1:1 million Ordnance Survey transport map, are used in a number of comparisons by means of the computer program MapAnalyst. These comparisons allow the scales of the two Saxton maps to be determined. They also show that the maps are of almost the same accuracy in terms of the positioning of settlements, typically within about 4.6 kilometres, in spite of a difference in scale of a factor of about 3.6. This fact and the direct comparison of the two Saxton maps in MapAnalyst show that they are basically the same map, and it is concluded that a version of the wall map was the first to be drawn and that Anglia is a reduced copy prepared for the atlas. The lengths of Saxton's miles as used on the two maps are calculated and compared with other determinations. The relationship between the two general maps and the county maps is briefly considered, and it is provisionally concluded that the relationship is a close one.     

The Railways of Britain: An Unstudied Map Corpus

ABSTRACT

Railway mapping, a distinctive genre of cartography, came into existence with the invention of railway transport in Britain. The planned route for the first public railway, the Stockton & Darlington Railway, was surveyed by 1820 as a statutory requirement for the Act of Parliament that was necessary before construction could proceed. The Stockton & Darlington Railway was granted its Act in 1821 and opened in 1825. From then on, an abundance of maps, plans, diagrams and technical drawings were created to enable railways to be planned, constructed and operated; to be changed, developed and regulated; to attract business and passengers; and to provide railway staff with a range of specialist tools. Today, Britain probably has the largest surviving corpus of such material, but owing to the essentially private nature of the preparation and use of railway maps, it remains largely unstudied and therefore scarcely evaluated in terms of its historical worth. This paper summarizes the archival history of Britain's railway maps and describes eleven broad categories of railway cartography that collectively form a coherent body of maps covering much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and which await better access and comprehensive study. It also underlines the urgency of ensuring the preservation of the railway map archive from further loss and destruction.     

欧洲人等级制世界地理观下的中国——兼论地图的思想史意义

Maps act not only as the carrier of the geographical information but also as the symbolic expression of particular cultural and political concepts, by which we can understand those people’s knowledge about themselves as well as about others. The maps drawn by the Europeans from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries vividly express the self-centeredness of the Europeans influenced by both the Christian and modern civilization concepts, and the maps also expressed their comments on the other parts of the world in such a mentality. Some characteristic maps and illustrations in the atlas of European history demonstrated how the Europeans formed and expressed their hierarchical perspective of the world geography. The position of China in the hierarchical world is one of the most important expressions of the European concept of China, and well served the purpose of our reflection on the cultural intercommunion. Translated by Deng Hegang from Zhongguo Shehui Kexue 中国社会科学 (Social Sciences in China), 2007, (2): 188–203     

The structuring of political territory in early printed atlases

Abstract

The atlas emerged as a cartographic and bibliographic response to early modern Europeans’ search for geographical order in a rapidly changing world. In particular, atlases were mediators in the restructuring of European ideas about political territory which culminated in the emergence (by the end of the eighteenth century) of the territorial state and its progeny, the nation‐state. For more than two centuries atlases defined political territories ever more precisely for their readers and expressed hierarchical relationships among those territories, while giving form to the political territoriality and geopolitical orientations of particular nations.     

Changing mental maps of the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions

ABSTRACT

Little empirical research has considered the way in which macro-regions are perceived outside academic and political circles. Such studies alone can determine what regional narratives mean for the wider public, and the extent to which they coincide with region-building images produced by elites. This article examines the mental maps of high school seniors in 10 cities in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions, focusing upon their perception and knowledge of other countries in those areas. Despite efforts at region building since the Cold War, the two regions remain divided on mental maps. Students have little knowledge of countries across the sea from their own, although such knowledge is generally greater among those from coastal (and particularly island) locations. A comparison with maps constructed by Gould in 1966 reveals that the perception of countries within one's own region among Italian and Swedish students has become more negative over the last 50 years.