Category — Cartography Tutorials

Early cartographer Danny learns about map projections in this 1947 intstructional video.

In this historic series,  “A World of Maps of the World”, Map Collection and Cartographic Information Services at the University of Washington Libraries introduces viewers to the world of map libraries in two parts: 1 and 2.

Via: MapHist

The Library of Congress Geography and Map Division has introduced a new web site called “Zoom Into Maps“. The site provides a sampling of many maps from its American Memory online collection. The site is broken down into several sections including Exploration, Migration and Settlement, Military and Pictoral maps. The site is intended to increase general knowledge about maps and by doing so, provides an interesting portal into a sampling of maps from the library’s enormous collection of digitized antique maps. As with all of the Map Division’s online maps, these maps are “zoomable” and can be examined in detail using Lizard Tech’s MrSID technology. The MrSID Viewer makes it possible to view and work with these maps “offline.”

Via The Map Room and Very Spatial.

[tags]Online Map Collections, Cartography, Antique Maps, Library of Congress Map Division[/tags]

I did a little more digging around the web on Jeffrey S. Murray, author of Terra Nostra 1550 – 1950: The Stories Behind Canada’s Maps (see earlier post.) Mr. Murray, a senior archivist at Library and Archives Canada (LAC), has contributed to the LAC’s cartographic holdings for over twenty years. He is responsible for many specialized guides, public exhibitions, and magazine articles.

I was fortunate enough to run across Murray’s tidy online tutorial, “Looking at Old Maps: The World Through the Eyes of Early Mapmakers” at LAC. While the tutorial might seem fairly rudimentary to some, to a beginner antique map junkie like myself, it offers some explanations and ideas for interpreting the interesting (and sometimes, at first sight, bizarre) graphics that appear on many 16th and 17th century New World maps.

In many antique maps, there is a realistic portrayal of wildlife and First Nations peoples juxtaposed against illustrations of sea monsters and Greek and Roman mythology. The symbology used, Murray postulates, actually says a lot about cartographers during an age where maps probably acted as clever marketing tools that promised fame and fortune to early merchant-adventurers, guided military commanders, legitimized a politician’s dominion and helped early settlers build communities.

There were a lot of “terra incognita” (latin for “unknown lands”) and cartographers were faced with the dilemma of filling in these blank spaces in their maps. Cartographers were often going on notes of explorers, (relatively few cartographers actually went on expeditions) so:

The solution of the mapmakers was to fill the gaps in their masterpieces with drawings of plants, animals and Indigenous peoples, going beyond strict mapmaking to provide an impression of the region’s geography.

Meanwhile, cartographers tended to overuse the images of some animals while ignoring others, often getting the comparative scale and portrayal of much wildlife incorrect. 

Murray provides a few great (and sometimes humourous) examples. A quick download of a MrSID browser plug-in provides exceptional detail of some antique map scans.

[tags]Cartographic History, Cartographic Terminology, Map Terms, Antique Maps, Antique Map Tutorials[/tags]

“Principles of Cartography: Making Your Maps Look Good!” is a PowerPoint presentation by Micah Cutler, GIS Coordinator, Harrison County, Iowa, from April 2006, and made available on the Iowa Geographic Information Council website. The brief presentation is non-technical in nature and covers TALDOGS (acronym for elements to include on a map,) common map design considerations, map symbols, principles of colour, text placement, and examples of map design techniques.

Also covered are the 5 Principles of Map Design from the Society of Cartographers:

1. Concept before compilation
2. Hierarchy with harmony
3. Simplicity from sacrifice
4. Maximum information at minimum cost
5. Engage the emotion to engage the understanding

PowerPoint is necessary to view the presentation. 

[tags]Cartography, Cartography Tutorials, Mapmaking[/tags]

I do not think I can be a very good judge of what might constitute a “good” antique map unless I have more understanding of cartographic principles. In my quest for knowledge about cartography, I see that The Atlas of Canada site has some well organized tutorials on map making that explain many of the cartographic principles cartographers call upon when making maps. I do wonder about the evolution of these principles. Did early cartographers adhere to explicit principles as cartographers attempt to do today?

The “Colour Basics” section is geared more towards web maps rather than paper maps, but does contain useful introductary information on colour theory. The section on “Type Design For Maps” details font selection and placement, and the difficulties inherent therein.

Of particular interest to me are the sections on Map Symbology where the topics covered include: “Symbol Basics”, “Data Evaluation and Classification” and “Data Symbolization”. I am quickly learning that symbols are everything in cartography, and the way in which symbols are used to abstractly represent various geographic phenomena is not only a principled science, but also an artform. The section notes, “Maps are complex tools for visualizing and communicating scaled-down geospatial data, and graphic symbology is their language of communication.”

There is an easy-to-follow explanation of map projections that details projection derivation and classification, as well as projection properties. Representing the 3-dimenesional spheroid that is Earth on a 2-dimensional sheet of paper is no easy task. The site explains that no one projection can accurately depict the properties of area, distance, direction, and shape concurrently and that, “…each projection is a compromise, showing some properties accurately, while at the same time, allowing others to be distorted.” Also explained: how a cartographer might go about choosing a projection, and how choice is dependent, at least in part, upon map purpose and which properties need to be preserved.

[tags]Cartography, Cartographic Principles, Mapping, Map Making[/tags]