Delve into Dr. George F. Jenks and the Kansas Industrial Development Commission’s 1952 atlas, “A Kansas Atlas,” which showcases Jenks’ innovative approaches to thematic cartography. Today, Jenks is widely known for developing the “Natural Breaks (Jenks)” classification system commonly used in modern GIS software.
The 1970 Census was the first United States decennial census to be released in machine-readable format, allowing cartographers sudden access to large amounts of aggregated demographic data about the entire United States. This blog post explores early computer cartography mapping techniques that took advantage of the new census format, including SYMAP and SYMVU, as demonstrated in an atlas held by the Geography & Map Division titled “The Puget Sound Region: A Portfolio of Thematic Computer Maps.”
This blog post from the Geography & Map Division explores illustrated comics created by US federal government agencies to introduce the public to new geographic data technologies and file formats in the late 20th century.
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.
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.
This blog post highlights unusual maps found in the Geography and Map Division collections including a chart of port cities, a history of the Civil War, and a railroad organization chart.
I recently heard a factoid in passing that fascinated me and sparked further investigation: after having been decidedly middle of the pack immediately post-Civil War, the United States’ share of total world manufacturing output became the highest in the world between 1880 and 1900, with a near exponential pace of growth during these decades. Oddly, …
This blog posts provides an introduction to some early maps produced from images captured by ERTS-1 (later known as Landsat I), the world's first earth-observing satellite.
How have national and global populations been mapped over time? This blog post uses collection items from the Geography & Map Division at the Library of Congress to explore changing methods for mapping populations, from census-based thematic maps to modern population raster datasets.
