{"id":1788268,"date":"2020-01-28T11:59:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T16:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1788268"},"modified":"2020-01-28T12:00:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T17:00:10","slug":"cartograph-history-of-a-back-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/cartograph-history-of-a-back-formation\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cartograph’: History of a Back Formation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by its appearance in a recent science fiction novel,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Matthew Edney explores the history of the odd word \u201ccartograph\u201d<\/a>\u2014a back formation<\/a> of \u201ccartography\u201d whose existence suggests circumstances in which \u201cmap\u201d is somehow insufficient. Edney traces three kinds of uses of the term: one referring to an early 20th-century instrument; one as a synonym for pictorial maps<\/a> in the mid-20th century; and one, post-1980, that refers to map products that don\u2019t, for some reason, adhere to Western cartographic ideals. (This piece expands on Edney\u2019s book-length critique of the normative ideal of cartography, Cartography: The Ideal and Its History<\/em><\/a>, which I reviewed<\/a> here last October.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by its appearance in a recent science fiction novel,\u00a0Matthew Edney explores the history of the odd word \u201ccartograph\u201d\u2014a back formation of \u201ccartography\u201d whose existence suggests circumstances in which \u201cmap\u201d is somehow insufficient. Edney traces… 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":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1788268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-cartography","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1787849,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/cartography-the-ideal-and-its-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":0},"title":"Cartography: The Ideal and Its History","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 October 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Matthew H. Edney\u2019s Cartography: The Ideal and Its History (University of Chicago Press, April) is a full-throated jeremiad against the concept of cartography itself\u2014the ideal of cartography, which after 237 densely argued pages Edney says \u201cis quite simply indefensible.\u201d Or as the subtitle to the first chapter states: \u201cThere is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cartography (cover)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/edney-cartography-ideal-history-210x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1787740,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/09\/history-of-cartography-project-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":1},"title":"History of Cartography Project Updates","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 September 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"The first three volumes of the History of Cartography Project will be published in Chinese next year, \u201ccompleting a translation project that began in 2014,\u201d the Project announced on Facebook last week. The Project was one subject of an international seminar on the history of cartography\u00a0held at Yunnan University last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hoc-vol-1-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hoc-vol-1-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hoc-vol-1-3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hoc-vol-1-3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788721,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/04\/the-history-of-cartographys-fourth-volume-now-almost-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":2},"title":"The History of Cartography\u2019s Fourth Volume, Now (Almost) Out","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 April 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"I believe that today is (nominally) the publication date of the fourth volume in the History of Cartography Project: The History of Cartography, Volume 4: Cartography in the European Enlightenment. As with other volumes of the project, it\u2019s a massive piece of work: two physical volumes and nearly two thousand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The History of Cartography, Vol. 4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/history-of-cartography-vol4-300x294.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786350,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/10\/the-limits-to-mapping\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":3},"title":"The Limits to Mapping","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 October 2018","format":"video","excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/r46RVWJ_nMA \"The Limits to Mapping,\" a talk Matthew Edney gave at Yale University last week as part of the Franke Program series of lectures, is now available on YouTube. Edney, who's Osher Professor in the History of Cartography at the University of Southern Maine and the director of the History\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/edney-cartography-ideal-history-105x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1795726,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/11\/forty-years-of-the-history-of-cartography-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":4},"title":"Forty Years of the History of Cartography Project","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 November 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"This article from the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison takes a look back at the 40-year history of the History of Cartography Project, which, with the forthcoming publication of its final volume, is actually coming to a close in the near future. Includes quotes from current director Matthew Edney, who first came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1790351,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/03\/edney-reviews-when-maps-become-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788268,"position":5},"title":"Edney Reviews ‘When Maps Become the World’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 March 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"Matthew Edney reviews Rasmus Gr\u00f8nfeldt Winther\u2019s\u00a0When Maps Become the World (University of Chicago Press, 2020), a philosophy of science book that engages with maps and representation\u2014with what Winther calls \u201cmap thinking.\u201d Edney isn\u2019t convinced by Winther\u2019s approach: \u201cWinther remains committed to outmoded and deeply flawed concepts of the nature of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/when-maps-become-the-world-100x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788268","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=1788268"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788272,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788268\/revisions\/1788272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1788268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1788268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1788268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}