Arthur Robinson Died; Reinterpreted World Map

[JNA]

Highlights from the NY Times Obituaries November 15, 2004

Dr. Arthur H. Robinson, a geographer who improved on the venerable Mercator projection for drawing the round Earth on a flat map, died on Oct. 10 in Madison, Wis. He was 89.

In a career of teaching, writing and research, Dr. Robinson always found time, as mapmakers have for centuries, to look for the best possible solution to cartography's frustrating "Greenland problem."

In 1963, Dr. Robinson devised his own map projection.

For his projection, Dr. Robinson chose 38 degrees north and 38 degrees south as the standard parallels. This established the two places on the map where both size and shape are most accurate in the middle of the temperate zone, where most of the land and people are.

The Robinson projection was eventually adopted by the National Geographic Society for use in some of its world maps. It is also the basis for maps by several federal agencies and the world atlases of Rand McNally.

Dr. Robinson's textbook, "Elements of Cartography" , published in 1953, is now in its sixth edition and still widely used in university courses.

[The One]

I couldn't find a biography of Robinson before 1945?? Does anyone know if he attended the Univeristy of Chicago? My grandfather was there in the 1930's (w/Edward Espenshade..Gilbert White...and others...) Chicago was ground zero for the best geographers that ever lived......

An interesting discussion about the Peters projection and unique problems:
http://www.newint.org/issue123/flat.htm

[Achernar]

Originally posted by The One

An interesting discussion about the Peters projection and unique problems:
http://www.newint.org/issue123/flat.htm

For a discussion, that's pretty one-sided. Don't most cartographers think that the map that Peters "developed" in 1974, as well as all the arguments that he put forward, had been known for decades, despite Peters' continued insistence that he was some iconoclastic crusader who forever revolutionized global cartography? That Peters did no original work, and cared more about being recognized than about actually contributing to cartography and education? That's just this thing I've heard....

Here's Robinson's globe projection. As you can see, Australia's a little tiled. Peters would claim this makes the map total garbage.

[The One]

Originally posted by Achernar

For a discussion, that's pretty one-sided. Don't most cartographers think that the map that Peters "developed" in 1974, as well as all the arguments that he put forward, had been known for decades, despite Peters' continued insistence that he was some iconoclastic crusader who forever revolutionized global cartography? That Peters did no original work, and cared more about being recognized than about actually contributing to cartography and education? That's just this thing I've heard....

Here's Robinson's globe projection. As you can see, Australia's a little tiled. Peters would claim this makes the map total garbage.

Peters has a lot of evidence on his side with regard to treatment of the tropics being "less" than equal from a representation stand point......but I would agree that his rhetoric takes that issue too far....

As for how the map looks....I like the Peters projection mainly for that reason....not that I'll need it to navigate NW or SSE anytime soon.....after all, that really is what these maps are all about "how they look" and are "viewed." Now that we have GPS and GIS goodies to computer guide our ships, we can focus on being fair in our representation about the world... I would guess that every ship over 40 feet in length now comes with a GPS unit (even a $100 one....) There is no question that the Robinson Projection is the best of both worlds to me and that it does a fine job for what is expected of it....

[Achernar]

Well, Peters would have had a lot more credibility if he had acknowledged that his map projection was virtually identical to the Gall orthographic projection published in 1855. It's a fair argument that maps presented in classrooms were not representative of the world, but that fault lies entirely with educators, not cartographers. Cartographers had had several different varieties of cylindrical equal-area maps available, my favorite being Behrmann's (1910) because it shows less distortion in the tropics than the Gall-Peters projection, and it has a more attractive aspect ratio. If Peters had pushed for existing equal-area maps being adopted instead of claiming that he invented them, I would have lauded his effort.

Any classroom that has a world map of any sort should also have a globe.

[The One]

Originally posted by Achernar

Well, Peters would have had a lot more credibility if he had acknowledged that his map projection was virtually identical to the Gall orthographic projection published in 1855. It's a fair argument that maps presented in classrooms were not representative of the world, but that fault lies entirely with educators, not cartographers. Cartographers had had several different varieties of cylindrical equal-area maps available, my favorite being Behrmann's (1910) because it shows less distortion in the tropics than the Gall-Peters projection, and it has a more attractive aspect ratio. If Peters had pushed for existing equal-area maps being adopted instead of claiming that he invented them, I would have lauded his effort.

Any classroom that has a world map of any sort should also have a globe.

I know, too many classrooms have CRAPY Globes.....what is up with that.....not cool....

[JusticeZero]

Not a fan of Peters type projections because the shape distortion in my area is very large. Mercator doesn't preserve size, but the shape is reasonably stable and so directions and distances are somewhat comprehensible when people look at the area. Most map projections twist and stretch things around and I can hardly recognize the space anymore.

[SkeLeton]

Wow.. I'm doing a thematic map based on a robinson projection for my cartography course now... I guess I'll dedicate it to him