Dear Cartographic Perspective readers,
I wanted to welcome you to issue 102 and keep you abreast of what’s been happening behind the scenes as we prepare for an exciting 2024 for our journal.
First, the issue itself has content that will be of interest to the wide section of readers. From contract cartographers to research librarians to academics, this issue contains entries that speak eloquently across the breadth of our community and readership. We have two peer-reviewed articles in this issue. In the first, Jenny Marie Johnson and Nicholas R. Chrisman trace the history of the General Land Office’s (GLO) “National Map,” showing how the map series “records the development of the United States of America from its foundation through its imperial ambitions” (7). Their intimately detailed retelling of the rise (and fall) of the GLO highlight both an important period in the history of the United States, but also how the nation has historically claimed space, rendered it legible and exchangeable (a core aspect of the early GLO being the sale of claimed territory), and built a “unified territory from sea to sea” (19).
Our second peer reviewed piece is from Andrei Kushkin, Amy Griffin, Alberto Giordano, and Alexander Savelyev, and tackles the thorny nexus of emotional cartography, cognition, and color. Color is one of my favorite topics in cartography and here the authors deftly entwine two concerns: that cultural and affective associations with color can conflict with map intent and the growing nature of emotional data in cartography. Taken together, they present, first, the results from a user study on color association and emotion and, second, a tool for cartographers and other data visualization practitioners to consult when trying to represent emotional data. In keeping with the spirit of NACIS, they note that their tool is likely to be “important both for academic and commercial contexts” (55). Perhaps most exciting, for me, are the future avenues of research opened up through this study. The authors clearly acknowledge the scope and limits of their study—for example, restricting participants to persons within the United States who speak English as their first language—which leaves open wonderfully intriguing questions of how “cognitively congruent” colors may differ within other contexts and how mapmakers (and data visualizers writ large) might accommodate these differences.
This issue also contains entries in our Views on Cartographic Education (VCE) and Cartographic Collections (CC) sections. In VCE, Carl Sack recounts his experiences using the 30 Day Map Challenge to teach cartography in a community college environment. Sack raises important questions around how traditional cartographic education models intersect with privilege and positionality. While Sack is careful to frame the outcomes of his pedagogical experiment in cautious terms, the questions he raises around how cartographic educators can better serve the needs of varied student bodies is one worthy of significant attention. Meanwhile, in our CC section, Benjamin Meader recounts the fascinating lives—and cartographic productions—of the Phillips Brothers of Maine. Held mostly in the Penobscot Marine Museum of Searsport, Maine, the brothers’ maps are often viewed through the lens of folk art; here, Meader draws our attention to their lives as independent illustrators that produced pictoral maps by hand. I suspect these maps will be of particular interest to our readers that enjoy hand-drawn mapping techniques.
The issue also contains four book reviews on a variety of topics. Veronica Penney reviews Sparrow’s Phenomena: Doppelmayr’s Celestial Atlas, finding it well worth visiting both for how it demonstrates the historical spread and acceptance of scientific knowledge as well as—and in line with our CC piece—offering much to consider with respect to “more artistic and creative forms of visualization” (89). Kate Thornhill reviews Miller’s Metadata for Digital Collections and finds it an “invaluable resource for anyone interested in working with digital collections” (81), while Glenn O. Humphress examines Black’s A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps and finds it well worth recommending to those interested in the history of cartography during and around the Second World War. Finally, Jörn Seemann reviews Altic’s Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas. A “very dense and descriptive” book (84), he describes it as “a great reference book, especially for map historians and scholars specializing in Latin America and religious studies” (85).
What stood out to me in the latter three reviews was how each reviewer found a lack of engagement with alternative voices by the book authors. Thornhill notes the absence of much discussion around the labor and costs of archival work, as well as a lack of engagement with criticisms of the dominance of “white heteronormative metadata practitioners who work at predominantly white institutions” within the field (81). Humphress notes the “serious omission” of maps both focusing on the Pacific theater or made by Asian or Pacific creators (91). Perhaps most reflectively, Seemann notes Altic’s work is likely to “provoke diverse reactions” that range from wholeheartedly praise for such a substantive work on Jesuit cartography to “categorical condemnation (as downplaying the devastating impacts of European colonialism in the region).” My intent in highlighting these somewhat parallel concerns is not to offer a solution, but rather to highlight how their continued presence within our collective inquiries speaks to our ongoing need for reflexivity and care. No work can cover every perspective, but which perspectives we choose to elevate—what data we put on the map and how—matters.
In addition to the excellent content of this issue, I also wanted to update folks on where Cartographic Perspectives is heading. First, we’re absolutely delighted to welcome Garrett Dash Nelson of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library as a co-editor of the Cartographic Collections section beginning this year. His work as head curator there will be invaluable for us. In 2023, we discovered a few hiccups in our production line that, if left unaddressed, could cause ongoing issues in terms of delivery of the journal. Daniel Huffman and I, as well as the Editorial Board, have been working behind the scenes to strengthen Cartographic Perspectives for the foreseeable future. If you are a student, or advise students, please keep your eyes out for a couple student positions we’ll be advertising in the coming months, they’ll be great opportunities to learn about journal editing and publishing (and to get more involved with NACIS!).
As always, I am honored to serve as editor of Cartographic Perspectives. 2024 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for the journal and I look forward to working with our incredible team to bring the journal to you.
Let’s keep mapping,
Jim Thatcher