The History of the Cartogram

1911 Apportionment Map John Krygier looks at the history of the cartogram, beginning with an “apportionment map” from 1911 that he says is “one of the earliest cartograms I have seen” and continuing with a discussion of the history of the term: maps that were called cartograms at the time would not be now; they’d be choropleth maps or graduated circle maps or even bar charts today. “According to Waldo Tobler,” he writes, “the term cartogram has been used since at least 1851, but it seems like the kind of cartograms shown above are rare until the first few decades of the 20th century.”

Previously: Cartograms from Worldmapper; Cartograms and Map Distortions.

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