- significant impact on geographical knowledge: advanced geographical theory or practice
- abstract visualisation with core spatial element (could be conceptual or data driven), including maps, charts, diagrams, graphs. (Generally excludes other visual media - paintings, photographs, etc.)
- widely recognised amongst peers as a 'classic'
- produced in last 120 or so years (taking 1887 appointment of Mackinder at Oxford as start of academic geography discipline)
Defining a 'classic':
- easily recognised,
- wide impact, (crosses over domain, influence beyond disciplines)
- longevity, enduring value (timelessness?)
- originality ('breaks mould')
- cited and copied
- elogance, simplicity and self explanatory
- universality?
- ???
We put together a simple slide show of Maps that Matter that was displayed on foyer screen at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in August 2008. The presentation show our initial selection of sixteen influential and iconic images in geography.
A pdf version of the slides can be downloaded from here.
Comments are welcome. We plan to enhance this presentation in the near future and display the slide show again.
Date: 1958-1964
Creator:
Tony Chandler (1928 - 2008)
(Source: scanned from Chandler T.J. (1965) The Climate of London. London: Hutchinson, page 165.)- The research work of Tony Chandler on the climatic patterns in cities was influential in the late 1960s and 1970s. In particular, his detailed empirical results on the extent of the urban heat island effect across London was widely cited.
- He undertook some innovative, large scale data gathering on temperature changes along transects across London, showing that during calm weather temperature differences between city centre and the surrounding countryside could be as much as 6 degrees C. His subsequent data analysis and visualization of spatial patterns provided important quantitative evidence to the variable scale of urban heat islands.
- Chandler recently died and more details on his career are given in his obituary in The Times.
(Source: scanned from Chandler T.J. (1965) The Climate of London. London: Hutchinson, page 170.)
Date: 1957
Creators:
Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp
This was the first comprehensive map of the topographic landscape of the floor of the Atlantic ocean created by Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp. It opened up a new space for inspection, contributing vital visual evidence to support tectonic plate theories, with the prominent Mid-Atlantic Ridge being seen as the key driving element in continental drift.
- The map was laboriously produced from many hundreds of sonar scans and depth measurement. It was initially supported by Bell Labs who needed detailed information on the structure of the ocean floor to aid laying undersea telecommunications cables. Subsequent maps produced by Heezen and Tharp enjoyed widespread success and were published as posters and reproduced in various forms in popular atlases and textbooks.
