STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THE NINTH CENSUS 1870.

[Walker, Francis A.]

Verlag: [New York], 1874

[4],5,4,14,13,8,3,4pp. plus sixty plates and maps. Large folio. Contemporary three-quarter morocco and cloth, gilt lettered label on front cover. Spine and corners worn. Front hinge cracked, board nearly detached. Text somewhat tanned, but clean. Good. A landmark of cartography, the atlas to the ninth census of the United States, prepared under the auspices of its director, Francis A. Walker. The importance of this atlas has best been described by John B. Jackson in his book, AMERICAN SPACE: ".Walker introduced to America the official use of what is now called thematic cartography. Maps with super-imposed symbols and colors are now of course very common, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that they came into general use.many of these were used by Walker in his atlas and others were invented, notably the 'pie'.Walker undertook to illustrate certain population statistics from the census by means of varying intensity of color on maps. His efforts were shown at a meeting of the American Geographical Society in 1871, where they aroused such interest that the Secretary of the Interior was persuaded to issue a special atlas where both of the novel techniques were used: shades of color, and symbols. There were maps of the physical features of the United States - rivers and forests and geological formations and rainfall; and there were maps illustrating population distribution and industry and vital statistics. There were maps of the incidence of deaf mutes and intestinal diseases, of foreign born, of illiteracy - not only by state but by county - all in varying intensities of one color. To us there is nothing unusual about the procedure, but Walker was the first American to try to show the spatial dimension of social and economic facts, to relate social problems to their physical setting and thereby throw new light on them." Walker was an extraordinary man, serving as director of the ninth census at the age of thirty, then as a Yale professor, and finally president of M.I.T. from 1881 until his death in 1897. He made landmark contributions to statistics, cartography, economics, and education, especially in his building of M.I.T. into a great institution. This early achievement contained some of his most lasting and widely pervasive ideas, ways of visually displaying knowledge which are now part of daily life. John B. Jackson, AMERICAN SPACE, passim. DAB XIX, pp.342-44. REESE, STAMPED WITH A NATIONAL CHARACTER 84. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM21440

Bibliografische Details

Titel: STATISTICAL ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES BASED...
Verlag: [New York]
Erscheinungsdatum: 1874