A fuller response for MAPS-L, Kathleen Weessies’ geography professor (et al.); doubtless more will be in History of Cartography’s vol. 6 [20th century] – to be published later this year.
From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Collier
Sent: 01 February 2015 19:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: First ever orthophotomap?
Photomaps using simple rectification were issued during world war one by armies on both sides. The British Ordnance Survey issued an 'air map' of Salisbury in the early 1920s, but it sold poorly due to the high cost and the idea was dropped. The US Army made extensive use of photomaps during world war two, mapping the whole of Brittany prior to D-day, the Canadians also used the technique, although the British were reluctant users until very late in the war. The Italians also made photomaps, I have seen examples from Corsica.
Experimental orthophotos were made in the late 1920s by Lacmann, using a laborious and not cost-effective process involving wooden profile templets. It s not clear whether any maps were made using this process. In 1933 Ferber came up with a solution, but it seems top have been used to produce orthophotos, which were then used to make line maps.
Credit for the first orthophotomaps is usually given to the US Geological Survey who used the instrument designed by Russell K. Bean to produce orthophotos, which were then used to make orthophotomaps. Bean's instrument was first described in Bean, R.K.1955. Development of the Orthophotoscope. Photogrammetric Engineering 21(4) 529-535. I don't know how soon after that the first orthophotomap was issued by the USGS.
Peter
Dr Peter Collier
Department of Geography
University of Portsmouth
Portsmouth
PO1 3HE
+44 23 92839652
On 1 February 2015 at 18:42, Francis Herbert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Anyone on ‘Lis-maps’ got any authenticated ‘first’; or pointers/source(s)? Or forward this, too, to Soc. Cartographers?
From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Weessies, Kathleen
Sent: 29 January 2015 19:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: First ever orthophotomap?
A geography professor is hoping to nail down the first ever orthophotomap. She has done extensive research on the history of remote sensing and aerial photo interpretation, and estimates that the first true orthophotomap (with rectification) was probably made in the early 1950s.
Is anyone out there in mapland the proud owner of this piece of history or at least know of it?
Kathleen Weessies
Geosciences Librarian; Head, Map Library
Michigan State University
Main Library
366 W. Circle Drive, W308
East Lansing, MI 48824