This project studies the development of cartography in the nineteenth century when the modern concept of cartography as the science of the measurement of the world first originated and flourished. An international team of expert editors will solicit, guide, interpret, and integrate the research of over two hundred contributors to develop a comprehensive and coherent account of the evolution of cartography in a social and cultural context. They will trace multiple facets of this new concept of mapping science within a wide variety of scientific, technological, political, governmental, economic, and artistic contexts. The increasing role of civil and military authorities in collecting, mapping, and using scientific data as well as the rise of mass cartographic literacy and the democratization of map use will also be studied. The final product will be an encyclopedic volume; there will also be a free, online publication of the volume.
Intellectual Merit
This research project promotes new scholarship that will enable intellectuals, specialists, and the public to understand the critical, formative period for modern spatial technologies and science. It stands to make significant contributions to the understanding of contemporary cartography, geography, and science. It will explain and interpret the origins and formation of modern cartography, and so of modern science, as cultural and social phenomena. The editorial team confirmed their volume design through extensive consultations with leading experts on science, technology, and cartography in the era. Strategies for working with contributors, for guiding their research, and for meticulously fact checking their findings were refined through the preparation of similar volumes on cartography in the eighteenth and twentieth century. The Press has already commissioned peer reviews of the design and methodology and has pre-approved the volume for publication.
Broader Impacts
As an interpretive guide to the origins of modern cartography (and more generally to the socio-cultural constitution of modern science and technology), it will serve to create scholarly networks and to stimulate innovative and interdisciplinary research. Its comprehensive content will enable researchers and readers to more effectively study the interrelationships of mapping sciences and technologies and their social impacts. The free, online publication of will capitalize on the widespread fascination and engagement with maps to publicly promote its analysis of the nature of cartography, science, and technology. In uncovering and exploring the foundations of modern cartography, the project will help create a sophisticated public understanding of geospatial science and technology.
