Chapter 3 Cartography

What Standard Applies Here? 3.01 Understand how to use maps, globes, and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process and report information from a spatial perspective.

Cartography Cartography is the art and science of expressing the known physical features of the earth graphically by maps and charts. This is one of the essential tools you need to study Earth Systems.

Maps Maps are made for many reasons, and as a result, vary in content. Some maps made for general purposes may show roads, towns and cities, rivers and lakes, parks, and state and local boundaries. The history of civilization has been illustrated by maps: battle maps by soldiers, exploration maps by empire builders, thematic maps by scientists.

History No one knows who drew, molded, laced together, or scratched out in the dirt the first map. A study of history suggests that the most pressing demands for accuracy and detail in mapping have come as a result of military and political needs. Quickly, maps came to represent a kind of writing, a means of communicating important ideas to other people.

Early Maps The earliest atlases in the Library of Congress are associated with Claudius Ptolemy, an Alexandrian (coastal city in Egypt) scholar who recorded and systematized classical Greek geographical knowledge during the second century, CE/AD. He titled his cartographic publication the Geographia. Thanks, Claude!

Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t other civilizations have their own maps? Yep. The Library of Congress and other such places have tons o’maps from China, Central America, Africa and well, everywhere. It’s just that the Greeks came up with a way to make maps with geometry—the cartographic system everyone in the world now uses. You’ll learn about this system in PowerPoint #2 of Chapter 3.

Early European Explorers The voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci dramatically changed the world map. One of the earliest printed maps to incorporate this new world view was Johann Ruysch’s map which is found in the 1507 reprinting of the 1490 Rome edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. Good thing our country got named America—rather than the United States of Vespuccia. How does “we are all Vespuccians” sound?! Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Introduction of Maps Martin Waldseemuller’s 1513 edition of Ptolemy was a landmark work that contributed to major advances in both Renaissance geography and map printing. Published by Johann Schott in Strassburg, it depicts for the first time in an atlas format the newly discovered continents of North and South America connected by a coastline.

Waldseemuller’s Map

Cartography as a Science French geographers placed cartography on a firm scientific footing during the eighteenth century, and many of their maps reflect original surveys or first-hand accounts obtained from French explorers and missionaries. You may already be familiar with some of those French explorers: LaSalle, Champlain and any number of other voyageurs.

French and British Maps French and British charts began to replace the stranglehold that Dutch charts had on the atlas business during the eighteenth century with the expansion of maritime activities in these two countries. You map, you rule.

Washington’s Farm In 1766, George Washington made this sketch of his farm… He was a multitalented kind of guy.

A Post-Revolutionary War Map A map of North America describing and distinguishing the British, Spanish and French dominions on this continent; according to the definitive treaty concluded at Paris on February 10th, 1763. A map was a way to lay legal claim to new lands: “We own b/c, we mapped it.” Seriously.

Duperrey’s Map of Bora Bora

Maps from Satellites Maps have evolved from mere sketches on the ground to satellites photos delivering precision accuracy. The photo below is a mosaic map of Antarctica ( i.e., created from many satellite images).

Computer Generated Maps Computer-generated map showing earthquake-prone areas. High-risk areas appear as white peaks.

Maps Created using a Telescope or Spacecraft Image of Saturn from the Hubble space telescope orbiting the Earth.

Summary Improvements in maps that have occurred throughout history are comparable to the change from pedestrian to astronaut. Information that used to be collected little by little from ground observations, can now be collected instantly by satellites hurtling through space, and recorded data can be flashed back to Earth at the speed of light. Pretty neat, eh?

Summary (con’t) Maps are an integral part of everyday life. Without maps, the world would be much smaller, culture diversities and experiences could not be shared, and life would be drastically different than it is today. Life, in other words would most cartographically suck.

However, It turns out humans (and other animals) already had the ability to make maps before scratching them out in dirt or artfully representing them on papyrus, parchment, paper or digital software. We call these maps in your head, mental maps. You couldn’t even go to the bathroom without one…and taking a map to go to the toilet would look very weird. What is a choreographed dance but a kind of memorized map?! Ever see a bee dance? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dances.html