By: Amanda Branch, Amanda Nicoll,
James Farley, LJ Kosar, and Frances Lester
What is cartography?

“The art and science of making maps”
-James S. Aber – Professor of Geology
Emporia State University, PH.D in Geology.
What is a map?
 “A map is a graphic representation or scale
model of spatial concepts.” – James S. Aber
History of Map Making
•15th and 16th centuries were a time of expansion and
trade for economic opportunities.
• Map making shifted from an intuitive/imaginative to
practical for professional use rather than the guesswork.



Greek & Roman philosophy heavily
influenced map-making up to the 16th
century.
Ptolemy’s belief and influenced Casper
Vople.
Vople’s “Terrestrial globe with Armillary
Sphere” was a globe encircled by a sphere
that distinguished seasonal changes and
orbits of heavenly bodies.
http://www.1worldglobes.com/
History/historyofmaps.htm
Terrestrial Globe
and Armillary
Sphere (Vople,
1543)
Map Making Continued.
http://www.1worldglobes.com/History/historyofmaps.htm
 Venetian
Sailing
directions in
the 15th
century
employed
the zodiac
and cultic
hand signs
as a means
of
navigation.
“Before European Hegemony”

“These two qualities of the thirteenth
century, increased economic integration
and cultural efflorescence, were not
unrelated. Technological and social
innovations produced surpluses, which
were, in turn traded internationally to
further intensify development” (AbuLughod, 14).
1300-1400
http://www.antiquemaps.co.uk/graphics/plate5.jpg
“Before European Hegemony”

“The world economy of the thirteenth
century is not only fascinating in itself
but, because it contained no single
hegemonic power, provides an important
contrast to the world system that grew
out of it: the one Europe reshaped to its
own ends and dominated for so long”
(Abu-Lughod, 14).
1400-1500
http://maps.bpl.org/pub/05/01/05_01_000200.MEDIUM.
“Discourse on Colonialism”

“Nature has made a race of
workers…the Negro; treat him with
kindness and humanity, and all will be as
it should; a race of masters and soldiers,
the European race” (Cesaire, 224).
1500-1600
http://www.brazilbrazil.com/m/map1507a.jpg
“World Atlas History”
Henricus
Hondiusoriginally
published in
Mercator’s
Atlas in
1595
 (earth,
water, wind,
and fire)

Map Iconography


Title page from Pieter
van den Keere's La
Germanie Inférievre
(Amsterdam, 1622)
The first original atlas of
the Netherlands
published in folio size.
Strong nationalistic
overtones are evident in
its iconography, which is
typical of the elaborately
decorated title pages
found in Dutch atlases of
the period.
(“World Atlas History”)
Map Iconography

Frontispiece from Joan
Blaeu's Le Grand Atlas,
volume 1 (Amsterdam, 1667).

The allegorical scene,
showing the figure of
Geography in a chariot drawn
by two lions, is based on a
painting by Peter Paul
Rubens. The personification
of the four continents is
displayed by female gures
associated with appropriate
animals. (“World Atlas
History”)
1600-1700
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:36:./temp/~ammem_yuzj::
“The Golden Age of Dutch Cartography
that was inaugurated by Ortelius and
Mercator found its fullest expression
during the seventeenth century with
the production of monumental
multivolume world atlases in
Amsterdam by Joan Blaeu, Jan
Jansson, Claes Janszoon Visscher,
Abraham Goos, and Frederik de Wit”
(“World Atlas History”).
1700-1800
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:34:./temp/~ammem_yuzj::
“The African Travels of Abu Bakr AlSiddiq”

“My father also sent horses, asses,
mules, and very valuable silks brought
from Egypt, with much wealth, as
presents to him” (Al-Siddiq, 159)
1800-1900
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:36:./temp/~ammem_yuzj::
1900 to Present Day
Contextual Background
 “Although the coastal outline of
Africa was one of the first continents
charted by European cartographers,
the mapping of that continent's
interior did not begin in earnest until
after World War II” (The History of
Maps).
Africa
1972
http://memory.lo
c.gov/cgibin/query/h?am
mem/gmd:@fiel
d(NUMBER+@b
and(g8201e+ct0
01273))
Africa
1996
http://memory.loc.
gov/cgibin/query/h?amm
em/gmd:@field(N
UMBER+@band(
g8201e+ct001294
))
Africa
1997
http://memory.
loc.gov/cgibin/query/h?a
mmem/gmd:
@field(NUMB
ER+@band(g
8200+ct00043
5))
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

http://www.bowdoin.edu/about/campus/maps/earth/images
/bowdoin-google-earth-models.jpg
“GIS is a collection of
computer hardware,
software, and
geographic data for
capturing, managing,
analyzing, and
displaying all forms of
geographically
referenced information.”
–GIS.com
Bibliography
Aber, James S. "Brief History of Maps and
Cartography." Academicemporia.Edu. 2004.
Emporia State University. 20 Feb. 2008
<http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/map/h_
map/h_map.htm>.
 Aber, James S. "James S. Aber Biography."
Academicemporia.Com. Oct. 2007. Emporia
State University. 24 Feb. 2008
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/aberjame.htm
 Abu-Lughod, Janet L., “Before European
Hegemony,” in the Atlantic World in the Age of
Empire, Thomas Benjamin et al., eds., Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2000 (second edition), pp. 1318

Bibliography
Al-Siddiq, Abu Bakr, “The African Travels of Abu
Bakr Al-Siddiq,” in Africa Remembered:
Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the
Slave Trade, Philip Curtin, ed., Long Grove, IL:
Westland Press, 1997, pp.156-163
 Cesaire, Aime, “Discourse on Colonialism,” in
African Philosophy an Anthropology, Emmanual
Chukwudi Eze, ed., Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1998,
pp.222-227
 "The History of Maps." 1 World Globes. 25 Feb.
2008
<http://www.1worldglobes.com/History/historyof
maps.htm>.

Biblography





"The Story of Africa." BBC.co.uk. BBC. 18 Feb. 2008
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/stor
yofafrica/10chapter3.shtml>.
"The Story of Africa." Bbc.Co.Uk. BBC. 18 Feb. 2008
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/stor
yofafrica/10generic3.shtml>.
Tignor, Robert and Jeremy Adelman et al., Worlds
Together, Worlds Apart, New York: W. W. Norton, 2002.
What is GIS?" GIS.Com. 4 Apr. 2007. ESRI. 27 Feb.
2008 http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/index.html
-"World Atlas History." 1 World Globes. 25 Feb. 2008
<http://www.1worldglobes.com/History/worldatlashistor
y.htm>.