{"id":1788049,"date":"2019-11-08T09:01:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T14:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1788049"},"modified":"2019-11-08T09:01:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T14:01:43","slug":"humboldts-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/11\/humboldts-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Humboldt’s Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
David Rumsey Map Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Writing for Smithsonian.com, Greg Millar looks at the maps of pioneering naturalist Alexander von Humboldt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What’s often omitted, however, in discussions of Humboldt’s scientific legacy is the role that his pioneering maps and scientific illustrations played in shaping his thinking. By creating visualizations of data that had previously been bound up in tables, Humboldt revealed connections that had eluded others, says historian Susan Schulten of the University of Denver. “He’s really a visual thinker,” she says.<\/p>\n

According to Schulten, Humboldt was one of the first scientists to use maps to generate and test scientific hypotheses. One example was his use of what he called “isotherm” lines to indicate regions of the globe with the same average temperature. These lines are ubiquitous on weather maps today, and they seem so obvious we take them for granted. But when Humboldt published a map using them in 1817, it caused scientists to rethink the widely held assumption that the average temperature of a region depends primarily on its latitude. The isotherm lines on Humboldt’s map had ups and downs that deviated from lines of latitude. This prompted him and others to look for explanations, and eventually led to an understanding of how ocean currents, mountain ranges, and other features of geography contribute to local climates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more on Humboldt generally, Andrea Wulf’s biography, The Invention of Nature<\/em><\/a>, is a marvellous read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing for Smithsonian.com, Greg Millar looks at the maps of pioneering naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. What’s often omitted, however, in discussions of Humboldt’s scientific legacy is the role that his pioneering maps and scientific illustrations… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,173],"tags":[1404],"class_list":["post-1788049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-antique-maps","category-weather-and-climate","category-wildlife","tag-humboldt","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1788136,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/12\/check-out-these-other-gift-guides\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":0},"title":"Check Out These Other Gift Guides","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 December 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"If The Map Room\u2019s 2019 Holiday Gift Guide still leaves you wanting for ideas, and the additional books in the Map Books of 2019 page don\u2019t do it either\u2014maybe you just don\u2019t want a book\u2014here are some other map-related gift guides curated by colleagues and reviewers: Over at Map Dragons,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gift Guides"","block_context":{"text":"Gift Guides","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gift-guides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Book cover: An Atlas of Geographical Wonders","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/atlas-of-geographical-wonders-300x283.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":927906,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/12\/early-radar-maps-of-antarctica-digitized\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":1},"title":"Early Radar Maps of Antarctica Digitized","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 December 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Nature: \"Glaciologists will soon have a treasure trove of data for exploring how Antarctica\u2019s underbelly\u00a0has changed over nearly half a century. An international team of researchers has scanned and digitized 2 million records from pioneering aeroplane radar expeditions that criss-crossed the frozen continent in the 1960s and 1970s. [...]\u00a0The digitized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/08\/a-problem-with-population-density-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":2},"title":"A Problem with Population Density Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 August 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Reddit user joostjakob posted the above map to MapPorn with the\u00a0following caption: \"Why population density maps are hard to read: exactly the same amount of people live in the black and in the blue areas.\" [Maps on the Web]","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"euro-pop-density","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1790544,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/03\/upcoming-workshops\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":3},"title":"Upcoming Workshops","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 March 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"Two workshops\/courses coming in June: Australian author and illustrator Kathleen Jennings will teach a workshop on fantasy mapmaking in June: the focus of Map Making and World Building is \u201con story and art,\u201d the mapmaking illustrative rather than cartographical, and in general it seems to be about the relationship between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1784981,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/02\/colour-differences-in-metro-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":4},"title":"Colour Differences in Metro Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 February 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Scientific American reprints a 2016 article from\u00a0The Mathematical Intelligencer on an obscure, but important, corner of transit map design: how to choose a colour for a metro line. The discussion is rather math heavy (and therefore above my pay grade), but the gist is that for ease of use lines'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transit"","block_context":{"text":"Transit","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/transit\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788795,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/04\/how-to-make-an-illustrated-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788049,"position":5},"title":"How to Make an Illustrated Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 April 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"In the travel section of yesterday\u2019s New York Times, map illustrator Nate Padavick offers a way to make lemonade from travel-restriction lemons with a short guide to making an illustrated map (pictorial map, map illustration\u2014the terms are roughly interchangeable) of a favourite place\u2014a neighbourhood, a vacation spot, \u201ca place you\u2019ve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Five Squares + One Triangle in My Neighborhood (Nate Padavick)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/padavick-nytimes-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/padavick-nytimes-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/padavick-nytimes-1024x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/padavick-nytimes-1024x1024.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1788049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788052,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788049\/revisions\/1788052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1788049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1788049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1788049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}