Carto‐bibliography on the Web: Links Combining Text and Image

Wolfgang Scharfe, Abriss der Kartographie Brandenburgs, 1771–1821. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin, de Gruyter Verlag, vol. 35, 1972. pp. 357, 27 maps, appendix with indexes. DM. 84.

H. Sigurdsson, Kortasaga Islands. Reykjavik, 1971. pp. 278, 69 × 42 cm. $ 55.

N. J. W. Thrower, Maps and man. An éxamination of cartography in relation to culture and civilization. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972. pp. vii + 184.

L. Stegena, Maps of Hungary by Lazarus Secretarius. Budapest, the Department of Cartography, Roland Eötvös University, 1971. 5 plates, 63 × 48 cm.

W. P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton, and D. B. Quinn, The discovery of North America. London, Elek Books Ltd., 1971. pp. 304, 362 ill. £ 10.

C. Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici. Volume 4, Celestial and maritime atlases and pilot books. Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1970. pp. xlvi + 519, with plates.

A. Schäfer and H. Weber, Inventar der handgezeichneten Karten und Pläne zur europäischen Kriegsgeschichte des 16.‐19. Jahrhunderts im Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe. Stuttgart, 1971. pp. 350, 8 illustrations. DM 48.

G. Grosjean and M. Cavelti, 500 Jahre schweizer Landkarten. Zürich, Orell Füssli Verlag, 1971. 30 map‐facsimiles, 48.5 × 50 cm., with text, in slip‐case, Sfr. 260.

Capitão‐de‐fragata Max Justo Guedes, Anônimo ‐ Antônio Sanches, c. 1633. Rio de Janeiro, Biblio‐teca Nacional, 1970. pp. 25, 1 coloured and folded map, 37 × 27 cm., monograph.

J. Cortesão, Historia do Brasil nos velhos mapas. Brazilian Foreign Ministry, 2 vols., 1965–1971.

National Maritime Museum, Catalogue of the Library. Volume 3, Parts 1 and 2, Atlases and cartography. London, H.M.S.O., 1971, 2 vols. pp. 1166. £ 14 (for two parts).

E. W. Gilbert, British pioneers in geography. Newton Abbott, Devon. 1972. pp. 271. £ 3.95.

Wilcomb E. Washburn (Editor), Proceedings of the Vinland Map Conference. Chicago, 1971. ('Studies in the history of discoveries’, Monograph Series of the Society for the History of Discoveries.) pp. xvii + 185, illustrations. $ 10.

C. Sanz, Ciento noventa mapas antiguos del mundo de los siglos 1 al 18 que forman parte del proceso cartografico mundial. Madrid. 1970. pp. 150, 190 plates.     

Benjamin Franklin,Georges‐louis le rouge and the Franklin/Folger chart of the gulf stream

Abstract: While in Paris as minister to the French court, Benjamin Franklin arranged for the production of a French version of his famous chart of the Gulf Stream, which had been based on a sketch by Timothy Folger and first printed in London c. February, 1769. This paper recounts Franklin's collaboration with the Parisian cartographer Georges‐Louis Le Rouge from their first meeting in 1780, and pieces together the history of the Le Rouge chart. Two open questions have been when the chart was engraved, and whether its purpose was primarily military, commercial or scientific. Evidence suggests that it was produced for French merchant and packet captains in the months following the end of the American War of Independence.     

Matthew Clark and the Beginnings of Chart Publishing in the United States

ABSTRACT

At the end of the eighteenth century Boston, Massachusetts, emerged as a centre of chart publishing in the United States. With little cartographic experience among them, Bartholomew Burges, John Norman and, later, Matthew Clark undertook a publishing venture that resulted in the first atlas of sea charts made in the United States. The research presented here redefines the roles of the principals and examines the atlas's relationship to other Boston publications.     

Munsell notations and color names: Recommendations for archaeological practice

Abstract

Archaeologists have long used the Munsell Soil-Color Charts for describing the color of stratigraphic contexts and unglazed pottery. The range of colors in these charts has limited the wider application of the Munsell system in archaeology, and here I review the merits of four complementary color sets: the Munsell Color Charts for Plant Tissues, The New Munsell Student Color Set, the Munsell Bead Color Book, and the Geological Rock-Color Chart. Since the Munsell system does not include color names, I advocate for the adoption of Inter-Society Color Council-National Bureau of Standards (ISCC-NBS) names for colors not found in the Munsell Soil-Color Charts. Using a compromise between these nomenclatures, I collated a list of color names and prepared freely available name charts that can be inserted into the books’ bindings. The solutions outlined here will allow archaeologists to describe a fuller spectrum of colors, while maintaining a terminology that is intelligible to their peers and consistent with past publications.     

Rethinking the dynamics of woody vegetation in Uruguayan campos, 1800–2000

Simplistic interpretations of the impact of newcomers on South American ecosystems retain currency in the environmental history of the subcontinent. European settlement is almost invariably seen to produce a continuous and linear destruction of the environment. On the basis of several crisis narratives contained in historical documents, it is widely accepted that there was a severe decrease in the extent of woody vegetal formations in the Río de la Plata area during the 19th and 20th centuries. To test this perception, and to develop a more accurate and more complex analysis of the environmental consequences of European occupation, this article focuses on Uruguayan territory from c. 1800 to 2000. Changes in the shape and extent of forest lands in this broad area were assessed by comparing 251 land-survey charts, drawn between 1830 and 1860, with modern-day forest maps. Changes in shrubland abundance were assessed by comparing current distributions with those inferred from the accounts of five travellers who passed through this territory in the first half of the 19th century. Over 200 years, there is no evidence of major changes in forest distribution, extent or shape, and shrublands appear to be much more abundant today than in the early 19th century. These observations, although based on limited data, contradict the most common interpretation of regional environmental evolution. They confirm other claims that the idea of forest destruction in the early 19th century was created and manipulated by actors involved in land conflicts. Close examination of such socially-constructed crisis narratives, through the use of new archives, leads to a better understanding of recent changes in the South American environment.