Posted in 03 Mappable Data, 09 Map Symbolization, Map History, tagged Cartographic Design, Cartography, landform maps, Map Design, map symbols, maps, scenery on maps, terrain maps on April 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Erwin Raisz is among the most creative cartographers of the 20th century, known in particular for his maps of landforms.
In 1931 Raisz outlined and illustrated the methods behind his landform maps, in an article in the Geographical Review (Vol. 21, No. 2, April 1931). Excerpts from the text and graphics in the article are [...]
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From the New York Times, August 2, 1892:
American Maps Are Bad
“It is doubtful,” says Mr. Jacques W. Redway, in an article on the projection of maps in the Proceedings of the Engineering Club of this city. “if anything short of a special act of Providence could give birth to a more beastly specimen of cartography [...]
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Wells
Springs
Successful, Unsuccessful
Nonmineral, Mineral
Nonmineral, Mineral, Artesian, Gravity, Artesian, Gravity
Rise, No Rise, Rise, No rise, Cold, Warm, Cold, Cold, Warm, Cold
Flowing, Nonflowing, Flowing, Nonflowing
Those are all the wells and springs…
In general there has been no attempt at uniformity of practice in the delineation on maps of underground water features or of wells or springs… …it now appears [...]
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A cartogram varies the size of geographic areas based on the data values associated with each area. Typical cartograms scale geographic areas to population, GNP, electoral votes, etc.
This “apportionment map,” as creator William B. Bailey (Professor of Political Economy, Yale University) calls it, scales the size of U.S. states to the size of [...]
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Posted in 03 Mappable Data, 09 Map Symbolization, Map History, tagged Cartographic Design, Cartography, Edward Tufte, ethnicity maps, Jacques Bertin, Map Design, map symbols, maps, multivariate, texture, visual variables on February 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Map of New York City, Showing the Distribution of the Principal Nationalities by Sanitary Districts published in Harper’s Weekly (June 1, 1894) using 1890 U.S. Census data.
This map looks great, revealing a substantial amount of information with its intense, juxtaposed patterns.
The textures on the map show the relative amounts of different nationalities (qualitative data) in [...]
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Deane Powell | Life | December 1, 1910
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Ah, the shingly shore…
William McTaggart, A Shingly Shore, oil on canvas, 1904.
The nature of the coast: steep, flat, cliffy, rocky, sandhills, stony, shingly, sandy, mangrove, mud, gravel, coral, breakers, rubble, unsurveyed.
The nautical chart map symbol for a shingly shore is taken from section A of Chart #1, Nautical chart symbols and abbreviations used by U.S. [...]
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Map-making has often adapted technologies designed for purposes other than making maps.
I recall Scitex hardware as the state-of-the-art in large format color computer mapping in the early 1980s when I was first learning cartography. Cartography applications were developed when Scitex, its origins in designing and printing textiles, noticed “the similarity between printing large fabric surfaces [...]
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Dams, bulkheads, arches, ditches, flumes, outlet spreaders, outlet baffles, revetments, riprap, fence, gullies, borings, test pits, siphons, retaining walls, culverts, inlet transitions, jump structure, overfall, tree plantings, sheet erosion plantings, streams, lakes, terraces, ground water, water seepage, water limits, drains, percolators … the language of erosion and flood control in 1930s America.
The above symbols are [...]
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Harvard’s Erwin Raisz (1893-196 was one of the 20th century’s preeminent cartographers (bio, bio, bio). Most people know of his landform maps, which are still in print. Raisz was also responsible for a series of atlases and hundreds of maps in books and academic articles.
In a 1937 article for the journal Isis entitled [...]
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