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Posted by: Julie Stoner
This blog post discusses the project done this summer during a Junior Fellowship at the Geography and Map Division. The post highlights Marie Tharp’s 1957 Physiographic Diagram of the Atlantic Ocean, other physiographic diagrams from the G&M collections, and why Tharp chose this kind of map in particular to depict the ocean floor.
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Guest Posts
Posted by: Julie Stoner
While working as a Junior Fellow this summer, Champ Turner worked with a collection of maps of Brazil. In this blog post, he tells the story, through maps, of an expedition taken by Teddy Roosevelt and Cândido Rondon in 1913 down the River of Doubt in the Brazilian Amazon.
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Exploration, Guest Posts, South American History
Posted by: Lena Mattson
On July 1, 1957, an unprecedented period of global scientific collaboration known as the International Geophysical Year began. Artificial satellites were launched, planetary weather observations were made for the first time, the understanding of plate tectonics was established, and more. Learn how the Army Map Service played a critical role during the IGY, providing the calculations that launched the U.S. into the space race.
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Big Data and Visualization, Exploration
Posted by: Abraham Parrish
An exploration of Earth’s magnetic field through maps.
Posted in: 16th century cartography, 18th century cartography, 19th century cartography, 20th century cartography
Posted by: Cynthia Smith
Florence Bascom broke barriers in the 19th century as a leading geologist of her time. This post discusses her life and career with the United States Geological Survey including the geologic maps she made which are in the Geography and Map Division collections.
Posted in: 19th century cartography, 20th century cartography, Biography, Women's History
Posted by: Julie Stoner
The Geography and Map Division has thousands of topographic maps in its collections but some have a unique take on the rest of the category. This blog post highlights several maps and models that stand out as being different in form and shape from other topographic maps including a chocolate bar map, a pop up map, and a map made of compressed paper among others.
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Physical Geography
Posted by: Amelia Raines
The Geography & Map Division recently digitized an important set of maps of Austria-Hungary. In this post, we explore these 19th- and early 20th-century maps and the layers of history and language that they contain.
Posted in: 19th century cartography, 20th century cartography, European History
Posted by: Abraham Parrish
Learn about the purpose and variety of terrestrial and celestial printed globe gores. Globe gores are strips of paper containing printed maps in the sizes and shapes needed for globe construction.
Posted in: 16th century cartography, 17th century cartography, 19th century cartography, 20th century cartography
Posted by: Meagan Snow
Learn about the development of the oscillating scan mirror (a key component of Virginia Norwood's multi-spectral scanner), which made Landsat I a success, changing the science of earth observation forever. The development of the oscillating scan mirror is documented in the "Virginia Norwood Papers," a new collection in the Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress.
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Big Data and Visualization, Geographic Information Science, Physical Geography