Extending modern cartography to the ocean depths: military patronage,Cold War priorities,and the Heezen–Tharp mapping project, 1952–1959

The first comprehensive map of any ocean basin—covering the North Atlantic region—was created in the US in the 1950s. Compiled by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp, researchers at Columbia University's Lamont Geological Observatory, the Heezen–Tharp physiographic map of 1957 was significant in several respects. It defined the large-scale physiological provinces of the seafloor, and highlighted its major physical features (including the Rift Valley of mid-oceanic ridge, which Tharp discovered). Military funding for oceanographic research in the early Cold War made possible extensive sea voyages that provided these Columbia researchers sea-floor depth profiles and other critical information; military secrecy persuaded Heezen and Tharp to adopt the physiographic approach when national security restrictions made new bathymetric maps ‘born classified’. But overlooked until now is that the Heezen–Tharp map also deeply depended on extensive support from Bell Labs, then laboring to install the first transatlantic telephone lines. Heezen's hope that the map would support the theory of the expanding earth over the resurrected theory of continental drift did not succeed. But the 1957 North Atlantic Physiographic Chart did reaffirm that representations of the seafloor, mediated by new technologies, fundamentally reflected changing motivations for studying the oceans.     

宋代知州知府与当地图经、方志纂述

地方志是宋代州府长官任职期内重要的施政参考和教化工具。宋代知州知府多兼具学者、文人身份,他们为当地方志从纂修到出版提供有力的物质支持,也以不同方式亲自组织或参与方志纂述,凭借权力取得了当地方志纂述活动中的主导地位,并借此增进与地方士人的合作交流。知州知府的参与是宋代图经、方志发展兴盛的一个重要原因,同时促进了当时方志纂述中两大特色的形成:一是宋代方志具有较高的文献价值;二是方志中"史家意识"的流露,从而出现州府长官代代续修一志的历史现象。     

英国皇家地理学会所藏上海开埠早期英租界地图考释

英国皇家地理学会收藏的一张开埠早期上海英租界的地图没有标注绘制时间。一种观点认为,该地图绘制于1846—1847年,另一种认为绘制于1844—1847年。两种观点均属推测。根据地图上的信息,结合当时英租界的测绘情况,可以推出该地图大致绘制于1846年10月1—19日。该地图为目前所见近代上海英租界最早的一幅城市地图,为早期上海英租界城市发展史提供了有力证据,并弥补了《上海道契》记载的不足,具有十分重要的史料价值。     

Medieval Maps at Merton College,Oxford

Abstract

À la fin du XVIIIe siècle, dans le processus de fixation de la frontière linéaire entre le Royaume de France et les Pays‐Bas autrichiens, les cartes manuscrites thématiques des traités des limites jouent un rôle fondamental en tant qu'instruments de négociation. Ces cartes permettent de saisir visuellement la complexité des possessions territoriales et de comprendre les enjeux économiques et politiques des transactions pacifiques. Les cartes analysées, de concert avec les actes des traités, mettent clairement en évidence un aspect moins connu, mais fondamental des cartes des limites, à savoir leur rôle en tant qu'indicateurs des enjeux économiques, en présentant avec beaucoup de soin les grands axes de communication par route.     

A Family Affair: The Dundas Family of Arniston and the Military Survey of Scotland (1747–1755)

ABSTRACT

This paper is the result of extensive investigation of the archives of the Dundas family of Arniston, Midlothian. It uncovers significant roles played in the organization of David Watson and William Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1747–1755) by successive generations of the Dundases and suggests that the introduction of Watson, an established military engineer, to the young civilian Roy, was facilitated by that family. The Dundases' patronage of the Military Survey encourages us to understand the project as a private-public partnership and supports contentions that Enlightenment mapping resulted from complex social networks straddling military and civilian life.     

Sound maps matter: expanding cartophony

In this article I investigate online sound mapping practices, taking cartophony – the coming together of cartographic and sonic activities – as an important contribution to emerging ways of thinking and practicing mapping. I first develop a typology of approaches to cartophony, before moving on to reveal the normative tendencies of online combinations of sound and mapping through an analysis of three platforms: Freesound; audioBoom; and Radio Aporee. Showing how in different ways each of these platforms supports an approach to sound mapping that favours pinning high fidelity, indexical audio-recordings to a seemingly neutral base layer, I question what is glossed over through this approach, while also considering how visual and sound-based strategies for communicating about places illuminate and resonate with one another. Discussing some more experimental online sound maps, I highlight the value of such projects in their current form, and argue for the continued expansion of cartophonic practice.     

朱正元与《御览图》:晚清地图史的视角

许多翻译、改绘、新绘的中国海图在晚清出现,《御览江浙闽沿海图》(以下简称《御览图》)就是其中之一。已有研究对该图评价较高,但相关成果侧重制图技术的考辨,该图编纂的时代背景、朱正元在编纂中所担负的角色尚待厘清,而这些对于理解该图的历史地位同样至关重要。本文在考查《御览图》及其图说产生背景和经过后认为,正是在西方测绘技术的进步和清政府面临海上威胁背景下,洋务运动中兴起的西学教育培养了朱正元等测绘人才。而朱正元基于英版海图测绘和编纂的《御览图》融科学性和实用性于一体,是晚清作为中国海图由传统转向近代重要阶段的标志之一。     

明清地图中的“苗疆”与“生苗”

明清时期,湖南、贵州、广西等省区交界地带是尚未纳入王朝直接管辖之下的"生苗"聚居区,被称为"苗疆",属于明清王朝的"内在边疆"。明代中期以来,明廷在以湘西凤凰腊尔山为中心的苗疆地区设立卫所、营寨,修筑苗疆边墙,隔绝"生苗"和"熟苗",加强对内在边疆的控制。明嘉靖《麻阳图》和万历《楚边图说》表现并强化了"苗疆"的存在。清代苗疆内在地缘结构改变,黔东南、桂东北取代湘西成为"生苗"聚居中心,康熙、雍正初年的疆域图中绘有三块"生苗"空白区,标明了清王朝疆域内的"化外之地"和"内在边疆",反映了清王朝的"疆域观"和"族群观"。随着雍正朝经略西南、开拓苗疆和改土归流,清王朝国家权力的空白地带--"生苗"区域逐渐减少并被代之以正式的国家政区,作为"内在边疆"的苗疆最终消失于清王朝的版图之中。疆域图生动表现了清王朝统一的深化和国家的内在拓展。