This is a guest post by Geography and Map Division summer intern, Wayne Hastings, who worked on processing and housing the John Parr Snyder Collection.
Imagine this. During the summer of 1972, the United States was in the midst of one of the most wildly impressive eras of technological and scientific development – the Space Age. After successfully landing the first human on the Moon, NASA and the United States Geological Survey were then on the verge of another era-defining achievement. Landsat, then referred to as the Earth Resources Technology Satellites Program, promised to innovate how we record the Earth’s surface with satellite data. One of the largest obstacles to sustaining Space Age momentum was contingent upon the development of equations, creating a puzzle that no one within NASA and USGS could solve… so John P. Snyder, an amateur cartographer, solved it for them.
Before Snyder derived the equations that made transforming satellite data into map projections possible, a process vital to understanding how the Earth’s oceans, forests, and cities were changing, he aspired to become a chemical engineer. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Snyder flourished as a young engineer, having received a bachelors and masters degree in chemical engineering from Purdue Universi