Tag archives for cartography
GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK – NOVEMBER 11-17, 2012: Being a National Geographic Cartographer
Posted by Juan Valdes on November 9, 2012 Geography Awareness Week is celebrated in the United States every third week of November. This year’s theme—Declare Your Interdependence—is intended to explore the idea that we are all connected through the decisions we make on a daily basis, including what foods we eat and which products we buy. As part of this year’s celebration,…
Gilbert Thompson, Lying Bob, and the Ballad of Croppy the Mule
Posted by Cathy Hunter on August 9, 2012 
When National Geographic founder Gilbert Thompson enlisted in the Union Army, a clerical error identified him as a painter instead of a printer. The typo proved to be serendipitous, leading to his work as an engineer, then a cartographer, and then on to a lifetime of adventures as he explored and surveyed the western United States.
Where scale permits
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 20, 2012 As is frequently the case, National Geographic mapmakers―for that matter, mapmakers worldwide―often face the problem of having to fit too much cartographic information into too little cartographic space. Scale, which defines the mathematical relationship between linear measurement on a map to that on the Earth’s surface, ultimately determines how much information can be portrayed on…
“A country once know as ……”
Posted by Juan Valdes on December 2, 2011 Over the past several days the media has been reporting on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Myanmar. Some have prefaced their reports using the following verbiage: “Myanmar, a country once know as Burma ……” In 1989 the largest nation on the Southeast Asian mainland changed its name from Burma to Myanmar―a…
Mapping Our Nation’s Ascendancy
Posted by Juan Valdes on November 3, 2011 This year marks the beginning of the Civil War’s Sesquicentennial. Just six months after commemorations began, sales of National Geographic’s Battles of the Civil War map have increased exponentially. It appears this key period of our nation’s history remains in the hearts and minds of many of our citizens. I was well reminded of this…
“Sometimes, all you need is a map”
Posted by Juan Valdes on October 20, 2011 It’s 5:45 a.m. on a chilly October morning. The office is dead calm and my cup of coffee has just kicked in. Thirty emails await my response and two handfuls of map projects need to be reviewed. Half of them, of course, are time sensitive. Where to begin? The project requiring the most urgent attention…
THE MAP OF MY DREAMS
Posted by Juan Valdes on July 26, 2011 In light of today’s Washington Post article , I wanted to share some thoughts on our new Cuba map . My career as a cartographer, and now as The Geographer, at the National Geographic Society, spans more than 30 years. In that time I have worked, in one manner or another, on most if not all…
“Giorraíonn Beirt Bóthar —Two shorten the road”
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 10, 2011 Southwestern County Donegal (Dún Na nGall), National Geographic’s map of Ireland (Éire) Depending on the type of map (whether physical or political), National Geographic maps use conventional (English) spellings, native spellings, or a combination of both (where scale permits). For example, when a commonly recognized form of a well-known place-name, such as Bombay,…
A Map Designers’ Journey Through Hallowed Ground
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 9, 2011 Having grown up in Virginia, working as the designer for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground map has brought back many fond memories. At one time or another, I have visited most of the towns, fished or canoed the creeks, and strolled through many of the parks shown on this map. For most native…
CUBA ON MY MIND: An Editorial Tour of the Island
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 7, 2011 Cuba Map: Editorial revisions on a section of the Final Correction copy. Twenty correction copies with over 800 revisions were made to the map before it was cleared to go on press. When I tell people that my profession is that of a map editor at National Geographic, I oftentimes get “What does that…
CUBA ON MY MIND: Creating a New Classic Map
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 7, 2011 Base map of Cuba as first exported from GIS prior to styling in Adobe Illustrator. Ever since first becoming a cartographer at the National Geographic Society it has been the creation of new maps that has so appealed to me. To take a mountain of lines, place-names, and other geographic data and meld it all…
CUBA ON MY MIND: Armchair Traveling
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 7, 2011 A georeferenced image of a NOAA Bathymetric chart overlaid on a GIS shapefile of area coastlines. As a National Geographic GIS Cartographer, people frequently inquire whether I get to travel to gather the data we use on our maps. I suppose National Geographic still evokes those romantic images of cartographers out in the…
CUBA ON MY MIND: Hitting the Cartographic Jackpot
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 7, 2011 New Cuban provinces as announced in the Gaceta Oficial de La Republica de Cuba, No. 023, September 2010 I have been assigned the task of researching and compiling our forthcoming map of Cuba. During the early stages of my research, I hit the cartographic jackpot—the possibility of two new provinces forming in 2011. Not only…
CUBA ON MY MIND
Posted by Juan Valdes on June 7, 2011 New and Complete Map of Cuba, supplement to National Geographic magazine, October 1906; NG Maps. Since our first post, this blog has addressed the history of cartography at National Geographic, geographic names (toponyms), and even the cartographic exploits of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the American artist best known for the painting “Whistler’s Mother.” I hope…
History’s Unheralded Geographers
Posted by Michael Fry on March 15, 2011 
A look at the artist James Whistler’s brief mapmaking career.
