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“Atlases and Gazetteers”

Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor

“Information Access”

UCLA GSE&IS Department of Information Studies

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Presentation Outline

Definitions Geography, Physical and Human (Cultural) Cartography Gazetteer Atlas and Map

Types of Maps Historical Cartography (in the US) Standards for Evaluation CD-ROM and WWW Examples

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Definitions

Geographical information, often in the form of visual information, involves spatial relationships. SLA, Geography and Map Division, Bulletin.

The formal study of geography as an academic discipline involves: physical (soil, terrain, rivers, geological features such as caves human (or cultural overlays such as roads or buildings. 10-year trend: Historical

atlases)

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More Definitions

Cartography is the study of maps (sometimes guidebooks) involves their creation and access to this information

Gazetteer (alphabetical volume providing place names, description, longitude and latitude). Atlas (collection of maps). Named for Greek mythology (Homer) for the god who warred against Zeus; required to bear heaven on shoulders and hands

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Gazetteers Continued:

Where else would you be able to find the country with these place names? Mingocebos (literally, Eat Onions) Beaufou (Beautiful Mad) Saligos (Filthy Pig) Cocumont (Cuckold Hill) Trécon (Very Stupid)

Ready to join the Society of Villages of Lyric or Burlesque Names?

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Atlas and Map

Greek god of mythology; supporting the globe on his shoulders in early illustrated books

Map (OED says first use in 1527) from the Latin, Mappa Mundi (meaning world map)

mappa, napkin or towel and mundi, of the world

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Types of Maps

Road maps (e.g., Thomas Bros. or Rand McNally) gasoline companies used to provide these free of charge state governments (Dept. of Transportation) often still do county (Department of Highways) township, Northwest Territory (early land records) public libraries have circulating collections of such maps

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More Types of Maps

Topographic portrayal of the shape and elevation of the terrain responsibility, USGS (1879) of the US Department of Interior strong military connotations; today, selecting industrial sites, planning

highways, locating communication facilities, routing pipelines, and selecting dam sites, or recreational uses (hunting, fishing, hiking, skiing, camping, and off-roading)

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Even More Types of Maps

Hydrographic nautical charts. Great Lakes, ship wrecks

Aeronautic airways and airports

Medical atlases photographic, mortality, and planning uses

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Map Use Strategies

Thematic Atlases

Older Atlases contain historical data

National Atlases general user or businessperson compare countries, economic strengths

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More Map Use Strategies

Catalog using the standard form subdivision “Maps” and “Atlases” and Description and Travel”

Foreign Language Dictionaries have place names

General Adult Encyclopedias contain an article on “cartography” along with place names, and insert maps

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WWW Strategy

Odden’s Bookmarks at Http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.html with more than 13,000 links one of the single best gateways to locating maps on the Internet

Alexandria Digital Library at Http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu (Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype, ADEPT) allows longitude and

latitude to be entered

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Historical Cartography

American continent in the 15 and 16th century

coastlines first and then more detailed under colonial administration of Spaniards “oldest recorded manuscript…showing discovery of New World is Juan de la Cosa’s

map of 1500” first printed map, 1506 most accurate, John White who drew the coast from Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and

Virginia south to Florida between 1585 and 1587

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Historical Cartography continued

American continent in the 17th and 18th century

first printed in US, wood cut map of 1677 “A Map of New England” high point, 1755, Lewis Evans’ Map of the Middle British Colonies in

America (engraved by Turner and printed on Franklin's press). Carey and Lea produced a war atlas (1794) and an atlas (1832) Tanner’s general atlas (1840)

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Standards for Evaluation

Atlas as a Whole

Range and Quality of Maps

Index

Supplementary Material

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Atlas as a Whole

Authority

Scope and Purpose

Date

Arrangement

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Authority

Ethnocentrism = geocentrism Publisher versus cartographer (source material)

Bartholomew and Sons, Scotland 150+ years experience Source of supplementary material (US Census Bureau) Place of publication is unusual center of the world Place Names: Roma = Rome or Wien = Vienna

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Scope and Purpose

NGS Atlas: to “supplement the efforts of educators to eradicate scientific, political, and geographical illiteracy.”

Evaluate; do not just compare

Do not rely upon publisher’s blurb or ad

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Dates

Copyright

Date on maps, the individual plates

Field checked

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Arrangement

location based on place of publication first

order based on frequency of interest

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Range and Quality of Maps

Authority Date Number and Adequacy Type Projection Size and Placement Scale Method of Relief Use of Colors Detail

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Authority

Reputation of the publisher

U.S. Board of Geographic Names for spelling in the United States

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Dates

Look at the verso of the title page and for individual plates Note political changes, since 1945, more than 40 countries have changed

names. In Africa, there have been 90 political changes. Former Soviet Union is now ...

Name changes, 500-1000 annually Study an area you know well to check; 5% obsolescence per year 5-year revision cycles; new printing vs. new edition

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Number

Count the number of maps

New International Atlas: “The space allocated to each region reflects its relative economic and cultural significance on the world scene, as well as its total population and area. In this atlas there is an approximate balance between Anglo-America, Europe and Asia, each with over one-fifth of the total map pages. Africa, Oceania and Latin America together account for the remaining one-third.” --Foreword

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Adequacy

Rand McNally New International -- no trans-Alaskan pipeline

Concise Atlas of the World -- Great Wall of China

New York Times Atlas (1972) Art Institute in the Chicago inset map is west of I-94

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Adequacy continued:

Penguin World Atlas (1974) Pan American highway linked with Soviet Union with the South Atlantic

Times Atlas of the World (1975) Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City? The latter...

Hammond New Contemporary (1977) Gaza strip is in the wrong place

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Adequacy continued further:

Encarta Interactive World Atlas Kashmir

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Type of Maps

Physical

plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, world minerals, climatology, vegetation

Cultural

world mankind, food potential

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Projection

3-D is a sphere (globe) versus 2-D (sheet)

Distortion: area distorted or distance distorted

Read Goode’s World Atlas or the Oxford World Atlas

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Gerardus Mercator

based on a cylinder

longitude and latitude are straight lines

utility in navigation because compass directions are true, fine for middle latitudes

edges distort

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Other Projections

Lambert Conformal Conical (equal area) Mollweide Fuller Robinson Van der Grinten Peters (equal area, southern hemisphere looks more prominent)

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Equal-Area Peters Projection

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Polar Azimuthal Equidistant

“Viewer is hovering over the North Pole with the rest of the Earth falling away in a circle , with North America on one side, Asia on the other.” LA Times, 9 April 1990, p. B2.

utility is distances

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Size and Placement

Top is North or is it East? Customary = Ethnocentric?

McArthur maps have Australia at the top

map margins; for identifying information and rebinding

Note percentage of double page maps

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Orientation

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The Turnabout Map

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Scale

Expresses the size relationship between the features shown on the map and the same features on the earth’s surface expressed as a ratio or fraction: 1:24,000 or 1/24,000. 1 (inch) on map equals 24 (inch) on earth

Topographic maps are commonly 7 1/2 minute (i.e., 1:24,000), hence large sheets

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Common Scales

1:1,000,000 1 inch equals 16 miles (USGS standard)

1:500,000 1 inch equals 8 miles (USGS standard)

1:250,000 1 inch equals 4 miles 1:100,000 1 inch equals 2 miles (GB’s

Ordinance Survey)

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Scale Principles

same throughout, ability to compare easily

no more than 2 or 3 scales for easier comparison

consistent for comparison

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Method of Relief

The use of lines…

hachures (hatching) in the direction of the slope (19th century) Baedeker’s Switzerland , 10th ed. (1883)

isolines, contour lines replaced this technique

dotted lines for vacant areas such as the desert

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Use of Colors

Historical Principle

Pink = British Purple = French Green = Portuguese Yellow = Spanish

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More Use of Colors

Higher the elevation, the darker the color Color according to temperature (typical satellite photos) Utility (blue for water and tan for desert) Harmony of colors (garish examples) Use of placards to identify colors (which may disappear) Five color printing (USPS)

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Detail and Use of Symbols

larger the scale, the better the detail

larger the scale, less distortion

Topographic Map Symbols

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Index

Index (to page with letter and number coordinates or latitude and longitude) versus gazetteer (Omni G of the USA, 11vol./CD-ROM)

USGS’s National Atlas index is not copyrighted. Often reprinted.

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Index continued:

100,000 to 200,000 entries is not uncommon. More is better

Running index or gazetteer on the margin

check for cross-references

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Supplementary Material

Utility? What’s this added stuff I am paying for?

“How to Use this Atlas”, metric conversions, world temperature and rainfall, time zones, airline distances, major world cities, marching times, world chronology, bibliography, pronunciation

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Check the Binding of Print Sources

Expense of the materials Guard -tabs Plates on hinges Loose-leaf? Advantage is update Boxed? Disadvantage is disorganization and filing updates Ledger-style on Chicago screwpost

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CD-ROM and WWW

Concepts Computerized Atlas (for the IBM PC), 1984 Interstate Travelmate (1990), $99.95 DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA (CD-ROM), 1990 $99 DeLorme’s Topo USA (1998) topographic maps with GPS MapPoint 2000 from Microsoft $109 MapInfo’s MapInfo Pro or ESRI ArcView (Redlands) 1:2,500,000 interactive at http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu

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Just a Gentle Reminder...

Remove the diskette now!