-------- Original Message --------
Descriptive gazetteers from an
Australian
perspective:
There are several descriptive
gazetteers
of states such as Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia,
 compiled
by Robert P. Whitworth, under the title "Bailliere's Gazetteer
and
Road Guide of ......", Â in the 1860's - 70's. We also hold a
small gazetteer of Australia compiled by Alexander Gross for the
London
map publisher Geographia in c. 1920, but the entries are very
brief.
Our latest hard-copy edition of
the
Columbia Gazetteer of the World in 3 vols is 1998, and
apparently publication
goes back to 1893.
Regards,
Judith Scurfield | Map
Librarian
| Access & Information
State Library of Victoria | 328
Swanston
Street | Melbourne VIC 3000
T +61 3 8664 7242 |
[log in to unmask]
From: Â Â Â
 "Angie Cope, American
Geographical Society Library, Â Â Â Â Â Â
 UW Milwaukee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: Â Â Â
 [log in to unmask],
Date: Â Â Â
 16/01/2014 06:44 AM
Subject: Â Â
  Re: The decline
and fall of the descriptive gazetteer
Sent by: Â Â
  "Maps,
Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship"
<[log in to unmask]>
-------- Original Message --------
I don’t know much about Chinese gazetteers — but
that
is precisely why Peter Bol at Harvard is my co-author on this
chapter.
I am very aware that there are other parts of the
world
besides N America, W Europe and China, and would be very
interested in
comments on them …
Humphrey
On 15 Jan 2014, at 18:54, Angie Cope, American
Geographical
Society Library, UW Milwaukee <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
------- Original Message --------
I am assuming your focus is on Western European gazetteers, and
perhaps
more focused on those British. Their history in China may be
older: <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2719404?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103277674257>and <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17066178&show=abstract>. Given my lack of linguistic skill, I have no idea how
these structurally
compare to later western counterparts, although looking at that
paper it
appears they tended to be quite regional.
Given your ongoing and extensive involvement with this subject,
it would
not surprise me if you already knew this.
Joel Kovarsky
On 1/15/2014 12:15 PM, Angie Cope, American
Geographical
Society Library, UW Milwaukee wrote:
forwarded by Angie
-------- Original Message --------
As some members of this list will know, I am co-editing a book
about gazetteers,
especially future digital gazetteers; but also authoring an
introductory
chapter which looks at the history of gazetteers, a surprisingly
little
explored topic.
Our general point is that, although most people’s
idea
of a gazetteer is simply a list of geographical names each with
some kind
of coordinate and sometime with a simple “feature type”, like
“settlement”
or “mountain”, there is an earlier history of gazetteers which
provide
lengthy descriptions of each place/feature.
We have computerised several of these for our web
site,
A Vision of Britain through Time, and are currently working on
tidying
up the seven-volume "Gazetteer
of
the World, or Dictionary of Geographical Knowledge,
published by
Fullarton's of Edinburgh in 1856; this has already been
digitised within
Google Books, but we are turning it into clean database content.
We estimate
it contains around 80,000 entries and 7m words, so the average
entry is
a couple of sentences, and many go on for several pages.
Similarly, this
“entry” for Edinburgh in Groome’s Ordnance Gazetteer of
Scotland(1882-4) contains over 100,000 words:
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/108700
SUCH BOOKS ARE NOT SO MUCH PLACE
DICTIONARIES
AS PLACE ENCYCLOPAEDIAS. I HAVE BEEN EXPLORING THEIR EARLY
HISTORY, BUT
THIS POSTING IS TO ASK ABOUT THEIR LATER HISTORY, AFTER 1900.
My basic narrative at the moment is
that
descriptive gazetteers, as distinct from itineraries, first
appear in the
mid to late seventeenth century, and the lengthiest examples
come from
the second half of the nineteenth century — but they then pretty
much
stop — when I have looked at the shelves of gazetteers in
various libraries
I have mainly seen books from the 19th century, occasionally
earlier.
The exceptions seem to be:
— There are of course lots of atlases
which
also include a gazetteer at the back (but this is about books
which are
primarily text)
— Bartholomew have kept publishing
revised
editions of their Gazetteer of the British Isles (but that has
relatively
short entries, so more a place dictionary than an
encyclopaedia).
— Various guides aimed mainly at
tourists
are organised as sets of alphabetically arranged entries about
places,
with descriptions; for example, various Shell Guides. However,
map libraries
are less likely to hold these.
IS THIS A FAIR NARRATIVE? WHAT
HAPPENED TO
THE BIG DESCRIPTIVE GAZETTEERS AFTER 1900?
One suggestion is that they were
supplanted
by broader encyclopaedias, a substantial fraction of whose
headwords are
typically toponyms. I have sometimes suggested that the world’s
biggest
and most widely used digital gazetteer is now Wikipedia; I once
sampled
100 randomly selected Wikipedia articles, and about 30% had an
associated
global coordinate.
I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL FOR ANY
THOUGHTS
ANYONE HAS. I continue to find it bizarre that so much has been
written
about the history of maps and so little about the history of
gazetteers
and itineraries.
With thanks,
Humphrey Southall
Reader in Geography/
Director, GB Historical GIS
University of Portsmouth
Geography Dept, Buckingham Bldg,
Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE, UK
www.gbhgis.org& www.visionofbritain.org.uk
--
Joel Kovarsky
The Prime Meridian
1839 Clay Dr., Crozet, VA 22932 USA
Phone: 434-823-5696
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.theprimemeridian.com
Humphrey Southall
Reader in Geography/
Director, GB Historical GIS
University of Portsmouth
Geography Dept, Buckingham Bldg,
Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE, UK
www.gbhgis.org& www.visionofbritain.org.uk
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