And wasn't Kingsbury's Atlas of Indiana SYMAP based?
David Cobb
At 12:33 PM 3/31/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> Hello Darius:
> Jim is quite right about the SYMAP atlases. I can remember going
> to the University's one and only computer center, feeding in my cards,
> and getting my first SYMAP map sometime in the middle 60's. Bill Loy
> did several SYMAP atlases in his work-up to the Atlas of Oregon. These
> were done for planning and teaching purposes, not for publication. I do
> not think any of Dr. Loy's SYMAP alone atlases were published. I do
> remember, and have a copy of: William G. Loy. “A Preliminary Atlas of
> Oregon.” It was published by the Geography Department, University of
> Oregon, in 1972. It is a 11 by 8 ˝ inch, around 162-page, plastic
> spiral bound paperback book. In the rear pocket it has a county boundary
> overlay sheet, titled ‘computer generalized map.’ BUT this atlas has
> both computer and student-drafted maps, so it does not fall within the
> critera.
> Several other Geographers were working with line-printer programs
> and produced maps at about that time. I have seen published line-printer
> map atlases from the University of Alabama and another University, maybe
> Oklahoma or Nebraska. In the University of Georgia Map Collection's
> holdings, after a quick search, I find Neal Lineback's "The Map Abstract
> of Criminal-Justice Information: Alabama." University of Alabama Press,
> 1976. All the maps are SYMAP computer maps.
> Most of the SYMAP based atlases I have seen have at least one
> drafted map which is to be used as a base map.
>
> Johnnie Sutherland
> Map Collection
> University of Georgia Libraries
>
>
> James R. Carter wrote:
>
>> Darius, et.al.: I remember a number of atlases that were done with
>> SYMAP or similar line-printer programs. Now which of these if any were
>> published is another question, but I think a few such atlases were. I
>> seem to remember that some such atlases were based on a State of the
>> U.S., probably published by a geographer working at a state university.
>> Can anyone lay their hands on one of these? They would have been done
>> in the late 60's or more likely in the 70's.
>>
>> And, I remember Fred Broome of the U.S. Census Bureau showing me a
>> computer generated atlas of Census data. I am guessing that would be in
>> the late 1970's. The graphics were generated in COM - computer on
>> microfilm. The thing I remember about this atlas is that the colors did
>> not come out as they wanted for in one case the graded colors could not
>> be distinguished. But, this was published in color and in that regard
>> it was first for me.
>>
>> I find it hard to believe that 1984 was the date of the first computer
>> generated atlas. Tobler produced a computer generated movie in the
>> 70's, or earlier, and then Moellering produced his movie of traffic
>> accidents in I think the early 1970's. Both of these were done by
>> filming off Tektronics vector displays. Of course, these were done in
>> black and white--well, really in light gray and dark gray.
>>
>> I draw my recollections from North America, but I know some Europeans
>> were doing good work in those early years.
>>
>> I would not wager that the first computer-based atlas was as late as
>> 1984. I would think that first atlas might have been published in the
>> late 1960s. It would not have been very elegant, but it would have been
>> unique.
>>
>> Jim Carter
>>
>> At 3/30/2004, you wrote:
>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> Subject: The first-ever computer generated atlas?
>>> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:56:50 +0100
>>> From: Bartlett, Darius <[log in to unmask]>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> Please can anyone help settle a (friendly) argument I am having with a
>>> colleague? We are trying to identify what was the world's first-ever
>>> published atlas, where the maps were created entirely by means of
>>> computerised methods?
>>>
>>> I remember being told, many, many years ago, that "Agriculture in
>>> Ireland :
>>> a census atlas" by A.A. Horner, J.A. Walsh and J.A. Williams
>>> (Univesity College Dublin, Department of Geography, 1984), ISBN/ISSN
>>> 0901120812, was a prime candidate for the title. My colleague
thinks there
>>> were almost certainly earlier ones, but which and where?
>>>
>>> Note we are talking here about ENTIRELY computer-generated mapping.
So, by
>>> this definition, Perring and Waters' "Atlas of the British Flora"
>>> would not
>>> count, innovative and notable as it was, because this used computers to
>>> overprint crosses (X) corresponding to the thematic data (grid points
>>> where
>>> relevant vegetation occurred) on top of outline maps of Britain and
>>> Ireland
>>> that had been created and printed by more traditional means.
>>>
>>> I look forward to your suggestions and ideas!
>>>
>>> Best regards
>>>
>>> Darius Bartlett
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Dr. James R. "Jim" Carter, Professor, Geography/Geology Department
>> and Graduate Coordinator, Hydrogeology Masters Program
>> Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4400 USA
>> -- http://www.ilstu.edu/~jrcarter --
>> tel: (309) 438-2833 fax: (309) 438-5310
>> [log in to unmask]
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
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> David A. Cobb Tel. 617.495.2417
> Harvard Map Collection FAX 617.496.0440
> Harvard College Library Email:
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