An
atlas is a collection of
maps, typically of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets (and their satellites) in the solar system. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in
multimedia formats. In addition to presenting
geographic features and
political boundaries, many atlases often feature
geopolitical,
social,
religious and
economic statistics.
"Atlas" mythology
The origin of the term atlas is a common source of misconception, perhaps because two different mythical figures named 'Atlas' are associated with
map making.
- King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was, according to legend, a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who supposedly made the first celestial globe. It was this Atlas that Mercator was referring to when he first used the name 'Atlas', and he included a depiction of the King on the title-page.
- However, the more widely known Atlas is a figure from Greek mythology. He is the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene (or Asia), and brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens (the idea of Atlas carrying the Earth isn't correct according to the original myth) on his back. One of Heracles's labours was to collect the apples of the Hesperides. Heracles went to Atlas and reasoned with him. Eventually, Atlas agreed to collect the apples, and Heracles was left to carry the weight. Atlas tried to leave Heracles there, but Heracles tricked him and Atlas was left to carry the heavens forever. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as "one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder".
In works of art, this Atlas is represented as carrying the heavens or the
Celestial Sphere, on his shoulders. The earliest such depiction is the
Farnese Atlas, now housed at the
Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli in
Naples, Italy. This figure is frequently found on the cover or title-pages of atlases. This is particularly true of atlases published by Dutch publishers during the second half of the seventeenth century. The image became associated with Dutch merchants, and a statue of this figure adorns the front of the World Trade Center in
Amsterdam.
The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was Lafreri, on the title-page to "Tavole Moderne Di Geografia De La Maggior Parte Del Mondo Di Diversi Autori ...". However, he did not use the word "atlas" in the title of his work.
Modern atlases
With the coming of the global market, publishers in different countries can reprint maps from plates made elsewhere. This means that the place names on the maps often use the designations or abbreviations of the language of the country in which the feature is located, to serve the widest market. For example, islands near Russia have the abbreviation "O." for "ostrov", not "I." for "island". This practice differs from what is standard for any given language, and it reaches its extremity concerning
transliterations from other languages. Particularly, German mapmakers use the transliterations from
Cyrillic developed by the
Czechs which are hardly used in English-speaking countries.
Online Atlas of Canada
Natural Resources
Canada (NRC) has a government website (http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/com/index-eng.php), that provides an online atlas to the general public, which they can interact with and gain knowledge from. Similar to the
Statistics Canada website, the
Natural Resources Canada site offers a wide range of free download-able data through the linked site Geo Gratis. The Atlas of Canada has been around since 1906 and offers maps on the [environment], [people and society], the
economy,
history,
climate change,
freshwater and
health, as well as reference,
archival and
topographic maps. Also available through the Atlas of Canada website is the Learning Resources tab, which provides
interactive and
non-interactive lesson plans for grades as low as 6 and as high as 12. In cartography many scholars are interested in how information or
phenomenon from the real world can be better represented on a map . The key word being re-present, since maps bring to life a situation that has already occurred in the past to the present. The Atlas of Canada complies with
cartography in that it is targeted toward educating youths in elementary and high school, which would develop their cognitive representation skills. Although there are some aspects of the website that can be improved upon. These are mostly fine details, but some times the smallest changes make the largest impacts and part of growing and developing a better functioning education tool requires improvements.
Pro - Downs and Liben, 1988 write about maps being opaque and it requires skills, which are taught before they can be read and understand properly. They believe that something that does not have prior context has to be learned because without cognitive representations misinterpretations of maps is easily done. The Online Atlas of Canada supports this really well by providing numerous lessons plans under its
Learning Resources tab
Con - The Atlas of Canada is largely promoted as a learning tool for students to become more knowledgeable in
GIS, poor colors used in their thematic maps could be influencing bad practices . Some of the sites thematic maps have unsatisfying color schemes based on the fact that the colors are too close in richness, making it difficult to decipher one color from the color above or below it. One of the ways Harrower and Brewer suggest to combat this issue is to utilize an online tool called the ColourBrewer, which assists map makers in picking the best suitable colours.
Selected general atlases
Some cartographically or commercially important atlases include the following:
17th century and earlier
- Cartes générales de toutes les parties du monde (France, 1658-1676)
- The Brittania (John Ogilby, 1670-1676)
18th century
- Atlas Nouveau (Amsterdam, 1742)
- Britannia Depicta (London, 1720)
19th century
20th century
See also
