A History of Cartography: From Stone Scratches to Crisis Mapping

Whether early stone carvings or produced by satellite imagery, maps are part science and part art—but are indispensable for understanding the world and our place in it. They tell us which way to point our car, when to pack an umbrella, and how a trouble spot across the globe might affect our national interest.

Join geographer John Rennie Short and explore the cartographic conventions, encounters, and curiosities of mapmaking to gain insight into how the art and science of cartography has developed and how we view and interpret the final product.

The ability of maps to fascinate and stand up as works of art remains the same even as the methods, and science for making maps has dramatically changed over the course of human history. Our maps, says Scott, are and will always be a reflection of the way we view our world and ourselves.

Short is a professor of geography and public policy at University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of Cartographic Encounters: Indigenous Peoples and the Exploration of The New World.

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