The mapmakers
A comprehensive history of cartography that traces the adventures, discoveries and feats of technical ingenuity by which man has succeeded in mapping the globe, moon and the planets.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
2mentions
2people
2012–2023years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you’re interested in maps and the history of cartography, I highly recommend the book: The Mapmakers by John Noble Wilford. Longitude by Dava Sobel is a good follow up.
- An interesting article but nothing revelatory.
Incidentally I am currently mid-way through 'The Mapmakers' (http://www.amazon.com/Mapmakers-Revised-John-Noble-Wilford/d...), love maps, collect maps, donate maps to UT Austin's great online Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/), and generally find geography fascinating. Martin Dodge's http://cybergeography.org/ is also a great resource.
In terms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) theory, humans have the greatest 'bandwidth' in perceiving spatially (visually). This means that as we grow to deal with ever larger quantities of information, in ever more complex systems, we will find ourselves more often utilizing spatial reasoning ... whether we like it or not. The history of mapmaking and maps in general is a fascinating area of human endeavour that can inform us moving forward.
