Hello there! I’m Daniel Huffman, the Assistant Editor of Cartographic Perspectives. While these introductory letters normally come from the journal’s Editor, Amy Griffin, she’s been kind enough to turn this space over to me this time around.
For the last nine years, I’ve handled the copyediting of each article, as well as the layout work and some final publication details. My side of things comes in after Amy and our Section Editors have put in the work to solicit and review content, and get it into publication shape. One great advantage of my position is that it ensures that I carefully read through the entire contents of each issue, and this often causes me to pick up valuable information that I didn’t even know I was looking for (as an example, I now use QuickOSM all the time thanks to J. C. Ehrig-Page’s piece in CP95). Most of us tend to read journals in a targeted fashion, seeking out specific articles for research purposes. But my position has shown me how much real value there is in just sitting down and browsing through everything, even if you aren’t sure where it will take you. I know that’s the sort of thing that many of us find challenging to fit into our busy lives, but if you’re the sort of person who’s already taking the time to read this letter from me, you’re probably on the right track.
This issue of CP opens with a piece by Andrew Rhodes on James Monteith, “Master of the Margins.” I was unfamiliar with Monteith (whom Rhodes describes as “largely forgotten”), and I appreciated not only the insight into the world of nineteenth-century geography education, but also the many lovely examples of Monteith's cartographic style and unique approach to marginalia.
Our second peer-reviewed article is by Michael Peterson, who meticulously reviews the density of features on large-scale maps from Bing, Google, and Mapbox. Many of us make use of slippy maps as part of our cartographic products, and this research gives a better sense of which services offer the best information for which parts of the world.
Michael Peterson also joins us, along with Paul Hunt, in the practical cartographer’s corner. Together, they walk through how to set up a public display of a frequently-updated map—think of something like a large monitor in a lobby, automated to show the latest weather radar.
Afterwards, you can journey through a variety of experiential landscapes thanks to Darren Sears’s Worldviews series in visual fields. Read through how Darren’s background and thought processes led him to craft multi-perspective views of individual places that capture “the full experience of a place.” It’s inspiring stuff for anyone who thinks about maps.
Finally, we have our book reviews. I always appreciate this section because, even if I don’t purchase the book in question, I usually end up learning a little something just from the general description of its subject matter. So, even if you're not in the market for new cartography texts, these are worth a look. This time around we have nine reviews, covering everything from textbooks (Cartography: Visualization of Geospatial Data, 4th Edition) to critical cartography (When Maps Become the World) to histories of often-overlooked mappers (Mapping Indigenous Land: Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain and Women in American Cartography: An Invisible Social History), plus plenty more.
Before you go, make sure to check out this issue’s cover, a detail from Margot Dale Carpenter’s Surfing Saco Bay. Part of my role as Assistant Editor is to secure the cover art for each issue, and it’s always a joy to be able to showcase excellent cartographic work. Check out Margot’s website at hartdalemaps.com.
I hope you enjoy, and find something that you didn’t expect to learn. Thanks for spending part of your day with us!
Daniel P. Huffman (they/them)
Assistant Editor