Books

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Cartography Design Annual
Nick Springer writes, “I have just published the Cartography Design Annual #1, a compilation of some of the best designed maps from 2007.” It looks interesting: the volume seems to be based on submissions from the CartoTalk community, which… »
Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Categories: Books
Two Upcoming GIS Books
James is looking forward to two upcoming books on GIS from ESRI Press: Building a GIS (Amazon) and The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach (Amazon, web site)…. »
Posted on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 9:54 AM
Categories: Books, GIS
Link Roundup: Early July Edition
Off camping for a few days; here are a few links to tide you over: Roger Hart’s very good blog, GeoCarta, has moved to a new address and a new platform. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center’s map collection is… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Categories: Blogs, Books, GIS, Hacks & Mashups, Industry News, Libraries, Triangulations (Links)
GIS Books
La Cartoteca points to two GIS manuals from the Pragmatic Programmers: Scott Davis’s GIS for Web Developers: Adding “Where” to your Web Applications, which came out last October; and the forthcoming (an online beta is available) Desktop GIS: Mapping the… »
Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 3:57 PM
Categories: Books, GIS
Online References and Print Publishing
A Publishers Weekly article on the impact of online references like Wikipedia on reference publishing — multi-volume encyclopedias are essentially toast — has the following passage about maps and atlases: Encyclopedias aren’t the only place publishers are feeling pain, though…. »
Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Categories: Books, Publishers
Atlas of Yellowstone
It’s scheduled for completion in 2010, but already the Atlas of Yellowstone, tantalizing bits of which that have already been completed are already available for preview, looks more than promising. It goes beyond maps of just the park, although… »
Posted on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
Another Book Review Roundup
WorldChanging has a review of An Atlas of Radical Cartography — and it’s by Regine Debatty of We Make Money Not Art. “An Atlas is one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking and original publications i’ve read in a long long… »
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 8:13 PM
Categories: Books
A Book Review Roundup
Cartophilia has a brief review of Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations, Vincent Virga’s book featuring maps from the Library of Congress. Vector One reviews John Blake’s Charts of War: The Maps and Charts That Have Informed and Illustrated War at Sea. Buy… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 7:47 PM
Categories: Books
World’s Largest World Atlas
The ginormous Earth atlas is: 61×46.9 cm (24×18½ inches) 576 pages limited to a print run of 2,000 sold with its own metal stand $4,000 (And hopefully not a premature April Fool’s joke.) Via MAPS-L…. »
Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 7:48 PM
Categories: Books
Australia in Maps
We’ve seen books come out that were based on the map holdings of the Library of Congress, Library and Archives Canada, and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec; now it’s the turn of the National Library of Australia. The… »
Posted on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Categories: Books, Libraries
A Revised Wainwright Update
When last we heard about Chris Jesty’s revision of Alfred Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, nearly three years ago, volume one (of seven) was just about to be published. Now five volumes have been published, the Cumberland News… »
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 8:09 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
Designed Maps
The ESRI Mapping Center blog reports on a new book from ESRI Press: Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users. It’s by Cynthia Brewer, who also wrote Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users (see previous entry). The… »
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Categories: Books, Cartography, GIS
Transit Maps of the World (Again)
Cartophilia has a review of Mark Ovenden’s Transit Maps of the World — well, it’s not so much a review as an excuse to share images of transit maps, but I certainly don’t mind. I’ll be ordering my own… »
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Categories: Books, Cities, Mass Transit
Mapping Colonial Conquest
The South African Mail and Guardian reviews a collection of essays edited by Norman Etherington, Mapping Colonial Conquest: Australia and Southern Africa: “By probing the ‘secret histories’ encoded in maps, which continue to influence the political, legal, social and… »
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 9:21 AM
Categories: Books, History of Cartography
Blogs into Books
First came the BibliOdyssey book, a dead-tree compilation based on our friend PK’s excellent blog about archival images (some of which are maps, so I have no qualms about mentioning either blog or book; here’s the Amazon link for the… »
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books
Historical Atlas of Canada
The huge Historical Atlas of Canada was published in three volumes between 1987 and 1993. An online version, the Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project, is now being developed by the University of Toronto’s geography department. It would… »
Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps
Census Atlas of the United States
The Census Atlas of the United States “is a large-format publication about 300 pages long and containing almost 800 maps. Data from decennial censuses prior to 2000 support nearly 150 maps and figures, providing context and an historical perspective… »
Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Categories: Books, Demography
The Gough Map Book Published
The 14th-century Gough Map, the oldest surviving map of Great Britain, is getting renewed attention with the publication of Nick Millea’s study, which, Tony Campbell says, “is the first study for fifty years of this highly important map.” To… »
Posted on Friday, February 1, 2008 at 7:07 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
John Bartholomew
John Bartholomew — who, along with his two brothers, was “the last generation of the Edinburgh cartographic family to run the business of John Bartholomew & Son Ltd.” — has died aged 85, the Edinburgh Evening News reports. The Edinburgh-based… »
Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Categories: Books, Obituaries
Festival of Maps: WSJ Review, Newberry Exhibits
The Wall Street Journal reviews two exhibits from Chicago’s Festival of Maps: the flagship Field Museum exhibit (of course), along with one of two exhibits at the Newberry Library, Ptolemy’s Geography and Renaissance Mapmakers. (Actually, the Newberry claims three exhibits,… »
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 8:18 PM
Categories: Books, Chicago Festival of Maps
An Atlas of Radical Cartography
The editors of An Atlas of Radical Cartography wrote in to promote their book. “An Atlas of Radical Cartography is a collection of 10 maps and 10 essays about social issues from globalization to garbage; surveillance to extraordinary rendition;… »
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 8:57 AM
Categories: Books, Exhibitions
A Book Roundup
An unusual book forthcoming from Hes & de Graaf: Courtiers and Cannibals, Angels and Amazons: The Art of the Decorative Cartographic Title-Page. “Over the time period covered by the present publication — roughly from the 1470s to the 1870s… »
Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Categories: Books
The Discovery of France
Last week, the National Post website ran a three-part excerpt of Graham Robb’s new book, The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War. Of interest to us is the second part, an amusing… »
Posted on Friday, January 4, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Categories: Books, Surveying
Festival of Maps Update: Book, KML
“The University of Chicago Press has a special web feature to celebrate the publication of Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, the book that accompanies the exhibit currently at the Field Museum in Chicago,” writes Dean Blobaum. “The… »
Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 5:26 AM
Categories: Books, Chicago, Chicago Festival of Maps
Mapping a Continent
Last week, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec announced the English-language publication of a book that highlights the cartographic collections of that institution. Mapping a Continent: Historical Atlas of North America, 1492-1814, coauthored by BANQ map librarian Jean-François… »
Posted on Monday, November 5, 2007 at 5:26 AM
Categories: Books
Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas
When I was a child, my first exposure to the wider world was through the National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our World, which, in the classic National Geographic style that eschewed overt criticism of foreign countries, simple maps of… »
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 8:22 PM
Categories: Books
Transit Maps of the World
Mark Ovendon’s Transit Maps of the World sounds delightful: it’s a compendium of maps of urban rail systems of more than 200 cities around the world. Cory Doctorow is smitten: “This is sheer public transit/map porn, and I’m in… »
Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 6:23 PM
Categories: Books, Cities, Mass Transit
12th Edition of Times Comprehensive Atlas Published
The Times has an article on the new — 12th — edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, which was released yesterday. The article discusses the changes that had to be made since the previous edition, especially those… »
Posted on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 12:34 PM
Categories: Books, Environment
Upcoming Books on Waldseemüller
On MapHist, John Hessler writes: Two new books on Waldseemüller and the context of the creation of the 1507 and 1516 world maps are due to be released in the next few months. The first, by Seymour Schwartz (an… »
Posted on Wednesday, July 4, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Imhof’s Cartographic Relief Presentation
Next month, ESRI Press is reprinting Eduard Imhof’s classic Cartographic Relief Presentation, which was first published as Kartographische Geländedarstellung in 1965 and translated into English in 1982; it’s been out of print since then. Press release: GISuser.com, Directions. Update,… »
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Categories: Books, Cartography
The Geospatial Web
The Geospatial Web: How Geobrowsers, Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society is a collection of essays about new geospatial technology — Google Earth, georeferenced feeds, the usual stuff we’ve been talking about — and… »
Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Categories: Books
Philip Burden and The Mapping of North America
British map dealer Philip Burden — his company is Clive A. Burden Ltd., named for his late father — is in the U.S. on a book tour; the second volume of his massive (and expensive!) bibliographic reference, The Mapping of… »
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007 at 10:35 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books, Dealers & Stores
Annotated Bibliography on the History of Cartography
I’ve been spending some time reading through Matthew Edney’s annotated bibliography of scholarly literature on the history of cartography; a new revision went online at the Coordinates web site last week. The list is bigger than some of my comprehensive… »
Posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 10:10 PM
Categories: Books, History of Cartography, Scholarly Journals
Printed Maps of Scandinavia and the Arctic
Next Thursday evening at the Scandinavia House in New York City, a talk by map collector William B. Ginsberg about his new book on the area of his expertise, a cartobibliography titled Printed Maps of Scandinavia and the Arctic,… »
Posted on Friday, February 23, 2007 at 4:45 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Yahoo! Maps Mashups
Webmapper notes the availability of the first book about the Yahoo mapping APIs, Yahoo! Maps Mashups. “It was about time, especially as the Google Maps API is covered in quite a few books already,” writes Edward. The book’s author,… »
Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 9:45 AM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
A Book Roundup
Much book-related news has been accumulating over here; past time I shared it. Surveying, Mapping and GIS reviews Dava Sobel’s Longitude, a book about John Harrison, who discovered how to determine longitude. I think I need to read this book…. »
Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 2:57 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Astronomy, Books, Cartography, Google Earth, Historical Maps
Introduction to Neogeography
High Earth Orbit’s Andrew Turner has written Introduction to Neogeography, a short e-book, published as part of O’Reilly’s “Short Cuts” series and available as a PDF file for $8. It’s a guide to the new mapping technologies that are… »
Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 2:55 PM
Categories: Books
CBC: Four New Atlases
“Atlases, believe it or not, are hot this year,” says the CBC’s Shaun Smith in a review of four thematic atlases published in Canada this year: The Canadian Hockey Atlas; The Wine Atlas of Canada; The Geist Atlas of Canada… »
Posted on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 9:42 AM
Categories: Books
University of Chicago Press Blog
The University of Chicago Press has a blog that talks up their books; of interest to us is the Cartography and Geography category, where you can find links to reviews and discussions of such books as Mark Monmonier’s From Squaw… »
Posted on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 11:27 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books
Oxford Atlas Reviewed
Matt Rosenberg has a brief but enthusiastic review of the 13th edition of the Oxford Atlas of the World. “This is a fantastic and beautiful atlas with an amazing collection of maps, satellite images, country information, data and thematic… »
Posted on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 8:30 AM
Categories: Books
The Atlas of Climate Change
The Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin has a profile of University of South Carolina geography professor Kristin Dow, one of the co-authors of The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge. She grew up in Racine, so… »
Posted on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 8:06 AM
Categories: Books, Weather & Climate
Historical Atlas of Oklahoma
The Norman Transcript reports on the publication next month of the fourth edition of the Historical Atlas of Oklahoma; unfortunately (for our purposes), the article focuses on the essays rather than the maps (173 of them), which are dispensed… »
Posted on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 8:38 AM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps
Explorers House
Catholicgauze has been reading a book that sounds interesting: Explorers House: National Geographic and the World It Made, by Robert Poole, a former NG executive editor. It’s an insiders’ history of the National Geographic Society, with a focus on the… »
Posted on Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 2:33 PM
Categories: Books
Cartographies of Travel and Navigation
A new book from the University of Chicago Press looks interesting: Cartographies of Travel and Navigation, edited by James R. Akerman, a collection of essays about the history of all kinds of transportation-related maps — railroads, roads, nautical and… »
Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 12:51 PM
Categories: Aviation, Books, Nautical, Railroads, Roads
Moses Greenleaf Biography
Retired University of Maine professor Walter Macdougall has written a biography of early Maine surveyor and mapmaker Moses Greenleaf, the Bangor Daily News reports. Macdougall’s book, Settling the Maine Wilderness: Moses Greenleaf, His Maps, and His Household of Faith, 1777-1834,… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 6:35 PM
Categories: Books, Surveying
A to Z GIS Reviewed
GIS Monitor reviews a new book from ESRI Press, A to Z GIS: An Illustrated Dictionary of Geographic Information Systems. “With short, clear, and authoritative definitions of more than 1,800 terms written by more than 150 subject-matter experts, this… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 9:29 AM
Categories: Books, GIS
Two Books About Google Maps Mashups
Two books about programming with the Google Maps API are coming early next year, Google Karten reports: Beginning Google Maps Applications with Rails and Ajax, in the same series as the previously mentioned book about PHP and Ajax, and… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 6:12 AM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
The Sovereign Map
MapHist is abuzz with excitement over the news that an English translation of Christian Jacob’s apparently significant 1992 work on the history of cartography, The Sovereign Map: Theoretical Approaches in Cartography throughout History, is now available. Is there any… »
Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 at 5:03 PM
Categories: Books
UN Atlas Presented via Google Maps
The UN Environment Programme’s atlas, One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, was announced in June 2005 and has been available as a free download since at least last February. (You can always buy the book, of course.)… »
Posted on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 9:25 AM
Categories: Books, Environment, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial
East German Maps and State Security
Jeff Thurston got his hands on what sounds like an interesting book: State Security and Mapping in the German Democratic Republic is a collection of papers on East Germany’s deliberate distortion of its topographical maps. From the publisher’s catalogue… »
Posted on Thursday, September 7, 2006 at 11:07 AM
Categories: Books, Censorship & Security
The Book Thief
Travis McDade writes, “I have a book coming out in October about a man who stole books and maps from Columbia University some years ago. The book deals a little with his theft and capture but largely with the… »
Posted on Thursday, September 7, 2006 at 10:48 AM
Categories: Books, Map Thefts
Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax
Books about Google’s mapping services continue to appear. Beginning Google Maps Applications with PHP and Ajax is a new book about producing web applications using the Google Maps API and your data, whether your data is small and simple… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 3:14 PM
Categories: Blogs, Books, Hacks & Mashups
Book Roundup: Off the Map; Terra Nostra
Alex and James Turnbull of Google Sightseeeing have put together a book that compiles nearly a hundred of their favourite finds. The book will be published in November, under the title of Off the Map in the U.S. and… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 at 1:23 PM
Categories: Books
Garver’s Surveying the Shore
If you’re in the Boston area, you might be interested in a presentation by Joseph G. Garver on Tuesday, August 22 at the Hingham Public Library: he’ll be talking about his upcoming book, Surveying the Shore: Historic Maps of… »
Posted on Saturday, August 12, 2006 at 11:49 PM
Categories: Books
The Power of Projections
Via Ubikcan (a blog I really wish I’d found out about sooner) comes word of a relatively new book that sounds like an excellent counterpoint/complement to Seeing Through Maps: The Power of Projections: How Maps Reflect Global Politics and… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 12:04 PM
Categories: Books, Map Projections
Forthcoming Books
Two forthcoming books on the horizon: A to Z GIS: An Illustrated Dictionary of Geographic Information Systems (Amazon), a terminology guide from ESRI Press (press release); and Google Earth for Dummies, which is self-explanatory (via Google Earth Blog)…. »
Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 at 3:37 PM
Categories: Books, GIS, Google Earth
Mark Monmonier Does NPR
Mark Monmonier appeared on NPR’s “Here and Now” yesterday to promote his new book about controversial place names, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim and Inflame. The interview, which you can listen to with RealPlayer,… »
Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 at 10:46 AM
Categories: Books, Podcasts & Audio, Toponyms
New Edition of Seeing Through Maps
A new edition of Seeing Through Maps, by Denis Wood, Ward Kaiser and Bob Abramms, is now available. It’s the second edition of the book; the first edition, still available on Amazon.com, came out in 2001. This edition, however,… »
Posted on Monday, July 3, 2006 at 9:54 AM
Categories: Books, Map Projections
Book Roundup
Cartography has a review of Else/Where: Mapping — New Cartographies of Networks and Territories (web site), a collection of 40 essays; my impression is that the contributors come from a design rather than cartographic background. Meanwhile, on atlas(t), Claire has… »
Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 9:41 PM
Categories: Books, Toponyms
Basic GIS Coordinates
GIS Monitor has a review of Basic GIS Coordinates, a book which addresses the challenge of trying to apply mathematical coordinate models to an inherently irregularly shaped planet. From Matteo’s review: Basic GIS Coordinates explains the progression of ideas that… »
Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 at 8:41 AM
Categories: Books
Terra Nostra; CCA Conference
Cartography notes the upcoming launch, during the Canadian Cartographic Association’s 2006 conference this month, of Jeffrey Murray’s upcoming history of Canadian cartography, Terra Nostra, 1550-1950: The Stories Behind Canada’s Maps. The book sounds quite interesting. So does the conference… »
Posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 10:03 PM
Categories: Books, Conferences
The Marvel of Maps
Thanks to MapHist, a book about maps and art during the Renaissance has been brought to my attention: art historian Francesca Fiorani’s The Marvel of Maps: Art, Cartography and Politics in Renaissance Italy. This book, according to the publisher, “focuses… »
Posted on Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 10:59 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Mark Monmonier
Directions reports that the keynote speaker at this week’s NEGIS conference was professor and author Mark Monmonier, which led me to his web site. Coincidentally, a copy of his classic book, How to Lie with Maps, arrived from Amazon this… »
Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 10:52 AM
Categories: Books, Conferences, GIS
Think Globally, Act Regionally: GIS for the Social Sciences
Think Globally, Act Locally: GIS and Data Visualization for Social Science and Public Policy Research, is a new textbook from ESRI Press. Authored by San Francisco State University urban studies professor Richard LeGates, the book is part of a project… »
Posted on Monday, May 8, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Categories: Books, GIS
Deadly Maps
Deadly Maps collects every map from a book published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats (Amazon.com listing). From the site: “The first five maps reflect the worldwide proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and… »
Posted on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 5:42 PM
Categories: Books, Current Events
The Geographic Revolution in Early America
Martin Brückner’s book, The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy, and National Identity, looks at the rise in geographic literacy in the colonial and post-independence periods and the the cultural impact of that literacy. It’s now out in paperback…. »
Posted on Tuesday, April 4, 2006 at 9:12 PM
Categories: Books
Triangulations: March 27
Jeff Thurston’s contribution to the debate over free geodata looks at the question of scale: if you want geospatial data to be free and updated regularly, consider the huge amount of territory that has to be mapped. Wired’s piece,… »
Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006 at 11:03 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books, GIS, GPS, Hacks & Mashups, Topo Maps & Trails, Triangulations (Links)
Agricultural Atlas of China
Visualizing China’s Future Agriculture is a new atlas — sample pages, sample maps — that is the result of a decade-long collaborative project of the Oregon State University China Working Group. As the Medford News reports, “It is the first… »
Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006 at 10:03 AM
Categories: Books
Geographic Atlas of New Zealand
The Geographic Atlas of New Zealand looks intriguing, even if the site only has one or two tantalizing images and it isn’t in Amazon.com’s catalogue. Damn it, I want more. Via Cartotalk…. »
Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 at 10:23 PM
Categories: Books
Atlas of North American English
Via MapHist, I found out about the University of Pennsylvania’s Telsur Project, which maps the variations in English dialect and pronunciation across North America, and is behind the (hella-expensive) Atlas of North American English. See previous entry: Atlas of Language… »
Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 at 10:01 PM
Categories: Books, Languages & Linguistics
More Reviews of Peter Barber’s Map Book
The Map Book, edited by Peter Barber, continues to get attention. It was reviewed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last month: “Barber’s chronological format is easy to browse, fascinating when read in sequence. Each righthand page is a full-color reproduction, usually… »
Posted on Monday, March 6, 2006 at 1:44 PM
Categories: Books
Google Earth Roundup
Macworld takes a second look at Google Earth; meanwhile, Google Earth, which was previously Tiger-only, has been quietly made available for OS X 10.3.9. And finally, the first book about Google Earth is finally out — but it’s in German…. »
Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 10:00 PM
Categories: Books, Google Earth, Macintosh
Chicago in Maps
The Chicago Tribune profiles local map collector Robert A. Holland, whose book, Chicago in Maps, 1612 to 2002, was published late last year. From the article: “In a section of the book Holland thinks of as ‘worlds within worlds,’ the… »
Posted on Monday, February 6, 2006 at 8:32 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books, Chicago
Link Roundup for February 6
Now that it’s available for the Mac, Macworld reviews Google Earth. Robert Gelb reviews Chandu Thota’s Programming MapPoint in .NET: “The bottom line is that if you are developing anything mapping related with Microsoft components, you gotta buy this book…. »
Posted on Monday, February 6, 2006 at 7:15 AM
Categories: Books, Collecting, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Triangulations (Links)
One Planet, Many People Redux
The UN atlas One Planet, Many People has been making the rounds of the mapping blogosphere lately — see, for example, Very Spatial and Le Petit Blog Cartographique — probably due to it being featured on the Landsat project news… »
Posted on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 1:35 PM
Categories: Books, Environment, Satellite & Aerial
Google Maps Hacks
Google Maps Hacks is now out and Directions has a review: “This book, started not long after Google Maps debuted last February, is dated. Google Maps is now known as Google Local. Throughout, we hear about how the software is… »
Posted on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
Link Roundup for January 21
A clickable map of Tlingit tribes, clans and clan houses in the Pacific Northwest. Via Plep. MapPoint B2B on the future of MSN Maps and Directions, viz., none: “The time has come to say good-bye to MSN Maps and Directions… »
Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 7:50 AM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial, Software
Link Roundup for January 14
Ben Keene, the editor of Oxford University Press’s atlas program (see previous entry), looks at the changes in geography he had to deal with in 2005 (via World Hum). MapQuest has inadvertently left Edmonton off a map of Canadian cities… »
Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 8:32 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books, Cartography, Education, Mapping Errors, Satellite & Aerial, Software
Book Review Roundup
Very Spatial reviews Making Maps by John Krygier and Denis Wood, an unusual book that is in my review queue as well. (I’m so profoundly behind on reviews it’s embarrassing, but a review of this book is forthcoming.) Here’s a… »
Posted on Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 9:48 AM
Categories: Books
Programming MapPoint in .NET
Chandu Thota announces that his new book, Programming MapPoint in .NET, which covers APIs for MapPoint 2004, MapPoint Web Service, Microsoft Location Server and Virtual Earth, is now available. A sample chapter is available via O’Reilly’s online catalogue, and there’s… »
Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 at 10:04 AM
Categories: Books, Online Maps
Oxford Atlas of the World
Two Gadling bloggers are dead keen on Oxford’s Atlas of the World, Deluxe Edition; see Erik’s post and Kelly’s earlier post. I had thought that the gold-standard atlas was the Times Comprehensive (at least that appeared to be the consensus… »
Posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2006 at 5:10 PM
Categories: Books
Guardian Feature on Map Books
Yesterday’s Grauniad featured a review of three mapping books with a heavy emphasis on the art of cartography: Charles Booth’s 1889 Descriptive Map of London Poverty, a London Topographical Society reprint that for some reason isn’t on their site; Peter… »
Posted on Friday, December 2, 2005 at 8:40 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Another Review of Mapping Hacks
Karen Ruby reviews Mapping Hacks: “The book is a good resource to increase your geospatial knowledge by doing, not simply reading. The hacks range from very simple mapping hacks to more complex hacks that require specialized software and coding to… »
Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 3:06 PM
Categories: Books
General Maps of Persia, 1477-1925
Here’s another big, expensive atlas to tell you about: Cyrus Alai’s General Maps of Persia, 1477-1925. According to Tony Campbell, who wrote the introduction and brought it to our attention on MapHist, Alai spent 15 years examining 1,200 maps… »
Posted on Tuesday, November 8, 2005 at 9:58 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Designing Better Maps Reviewed
GIS Monitor reviews Cynthia Brewer’s Designing Better Maps: “Brewer’s advice is authoritative, practical, and useful to novice and experienced mapmakers alike. She focuses on just a few key questions — how to design a map so that its layout… »
Posted on Tuesday, November 8, 2005 at 9:11 AM
Categories: Books, GIS
Book Review Policy
A couple of authors have asked me whether I’d be interested in reviewing their books and where to send them. To aid future inquiries, I’ve now added information about book reviews to the About page: what I’m willing to look… »
Posted on Tuesday, October 4, 2005 at 12:11 PM
Categories: Books, Site News
Blaeu’s Atlas Maior (1665)
Gadling points to a new release from über-expensive book publisher Taschen: a reproduction of Joan Blaeu’s 1665 Atlas Maior. The original was in Latin and in 11 volumes; the modern version is nearly 800 pages, weighs 7.2 kg, and, from… »
Posted on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 9:09 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books
Great Apes Atlas
The World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation, which I believe was launched yesterday, “provides a comprehensive overview of what is currently known about all six species of great apes — chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla,… »
Posted on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 9:09 AM
Categories: Books, Environment
Book Review Roundup
Directions has a review of Cynthia Brewer’s Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users, which sounds really interesting: it’s a book about design choices for cartography — i.e., what looks good, what doesn’t. From the review: “[It] covers all… »
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 10:27 AM
Categories: Books
Children Map the World: The Book
The Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Competition has been running every two years since 1993; it’s an international award for maps made by children under the age of 15. More information is available at the International Cartographic Association’s Commission on… »
Posted on Thursday, August 4, 2005 at 2:45 PM
Categories: Books
CSM Review of Why Geography Matters
David J. Smith — he of mapping.com — has a review in tomorrow’s Christian Science Monitor of former National Geographic Society editor Harm de Blij’s new book, Why Geography Matters, which apparently is an apologia for geography, geographic and cartographic… »
Posted on Monday, August 1, 2005 at 11:02 PM
Categories: Books
London WWII Bomb Damage Maps
During World War Two, London County Council kept maps showing the damage caused to the city by German bombs. They did it by hand-colouring Ordnance Survey maps, each colour representing a certain amount of damage. Now, the BBC reports, the… »
Posted on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 10:35 AM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps, London
Book Review Roundup
A few more reviews of recently published mapping books. Urban Cartography’s review of Mapping Hacks: “[The authors have] made a technical book that is not technical; they’ve made a manual that is automatic; they’ve made a really fun and interesting… »
Posted on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 8:07 AM
Categories: Books
Web Mapping Illustrated Reviewed
Import Cartography reviews Tyler Mitchell’s Web Mapping Illustrated: “IT and Web professionals looking to break into geospatial and mapping work will find this book to be the ideal starting point, as will those who are graduating from Google map hacks… »
Posted on Friday, July 8, 2005 at 5:58 PM
Categories: Books
Follow-ups: Wall Maps and Atlases
We’ve dealt with the questions of where to buy a very big wall-sized world map and which world atlas is best, but these subjects came up on Ask MetaFilter recently, and you might find some of the answers useful: the… »
Posted on Friday, July 8, 2005 at 9:40 AM
Categories: Books, Questions
Mapping Hacks Reviewed
Not that I haven’t mentioned Mapping Hacks enough already (see previous entries: Mapping Hacks, Mapping Hacks Now Out), but you might be interested in this pretty thorough review over on Blogcritics…. »
Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2005 at 11:36 PM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
Open Source Geospatial Tools; Web Mapping Illustrated
I’m overdue in posting this one, which comes to us thanks to James. Tyler Mitchell, whose Web Mapping Illustrated, a guide to free mapping software, is now shipping, had an article up on O’Reilly last month that I think serves… »
Posted on Tuesday, July 5, 2005 at 7:48 AM
Categories: Books, GIS, Software
Mapping Hacks Now Out
Mapping Hacks (see previous entry) is finally shipping after some delays; Directions has a review. The book went to press too soon to take account of all the Google Maps hacks that have sprung up in the meantime, so they’ve… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 10:50 PM
Categories: Books, Hacks & Mashups
Revising Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells (reissued box set), published between 1955 and 1966, were apparently marvels of art and detail (though I haven’t found any samples online), and have served as the definitive guides to hiking… »
Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 at 8:23 PM
Categories: Books, Topo Maps & Trails
1946 U.S. Railroad Atlas, Volume Two
Last year I covered the first volume in Richard Carpenter’s series of historical railroad atlases covering the United States in 1946. I actually got it for Christmas last year: because I’m not familiar with the mid-Atlantic states the first volume… »
Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 at 3:11 PM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps, Railroads
Review of A History of Spaces
Cristina D’Alessandro-Scarpari reviews A History of Spaces (by John Pickles) for EspacesTemps.net. Not for the academically disinclined: “A History of Spaces is certainly about geography and maps, but it is mainly a questioning of the processes of map-making and of… »
Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 at 2:56 PM
Categories: Books
One Planet, Many People
A new atlas announced Saturday by the UN, titled One Planet, Many People, shows the impact of the last 30 years of human development in a dramatic way, by showing before and after satellite photography of various locations. Sample images… »
Posted on Monday, June 6, 2005 at 11:35 PM
Categories: Books, Environment, Satellite & Aerial
Karen Wynn Fonstad
Karen Wynn Fonstad, the freelance cartographer who authored atlases of Middle-earth, Dragonlance and other fantasy worlds, died March 11 of complications from breast cancer. She was 59. This Toronto Sun article from 2002 reviews her best-known work, The Atlas of… »
Posted on Monday, April 4, 2005 at 12:25 AM
Categories: Books, Imaginary Places, Obituaries
Review of Maps of the Imagination
Today’s Oregonian has a review of Peter Turchi’s Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, which I see that a few of you have ordered from Amazon via this site. I haven’t had a chance to look at a… »
Posted on Sunday, April 3, 2005 at 9:30 PM
Categories: Books
Review of Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet
qatsi has a review of Nicholas Crane’s book Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet. We’ve seen examples of Mr. Crane’s work before: Profile of Tube Map’s Creator; TV Series About Maps; Triangulation Pillars. (Via and cross-posted to Here Be… »
Posted on Sunday, March 27, 2005 at 4:15 PM
Categories: Books
Mapping Hacks
Mapping Hacks, forthcoming from O’Reilly, isn’t just a book of tips on everything from using mapping sites to using a GPS to building your own maps (see the table of contents), it’s also a blog. I must confess to being… »
Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 10:29 AM
Categories: Blogs, Books
Question: Best World Atlas?
Marc asks, “Which is the best overall general-purpose atlas I can buy? My criteria would include depth, detail and quality of design.” There are, of course, several options, including the Great, Hammond, National Geographic (Amazon, National Geographic Store), Oxford University… »
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 10:31 AM
Categories: Books, Questions
Where Is Here?
Last month I finished reading Alan Morantz’s Where Is Here? Canada’s Maps and the Stories They Tell, which I got as a birthday gift last year — it was in the remainder pile. I suppose I should try to… »
Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 at 3:53 PM
Categories: Books
David Rumsey Profile
Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a profile of David Rumsey, whose eponymous web site hosts a massive digital archive of his even more massive private collection of old maps: 10,000 maps — out of a total collection of 150,000! It’s… »
Posted on Monday, September 27, 2004 at 11:55 AM
Categories: Antique Maps, Books, Maps Online
History of Cartography Project Co-Founder Dies
Last December, I reported on the massive History of Cartography Project, an expensive, comprehensive multivolume series, the first volume of which came out in 1987. The project was founded by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. Harley died in 1991…. »
Posted on Sunday, September 26, 2004 at 10:04 PM
Categories: Books, History of Cartography, Obituaries
1946 U.S. Railroad Atlas
This month’s Fast Company has a profile of Richard Carpenter, who has published the first volume of his Railroad Atlas of the United States in 1946. The maps are hand-drawn and hand-lettered; the article provides fascinating details about their creation…. »
Posted on Monday, February 9, 2004 at 10:17 AM
Categories: Books, Historical Maps,