Tucked away in Science Hall, researchers in the Department of Geography have been working on an award-winning global initiative called the History of Cartography Project. The project is a research, editorial and publishing venture that draws attention to the history of maps and mapping. For the project, researchers treat maps as cultural artifacts created from prehistory all the way to the 20th century.
This effort has been in the works since 1977 and will draw to a close in 2027, having produced six broadly inclusive volumes. The series provides the interpretive structure necessary to assess, appreciate and analyze maps, and it was prepared for both scholarly readers and everyday audiences. It helps readers move beyond simply identifying and describing early maps by encouraging them to consider how and why people have made and used maps.
These volumes are massive — the final four are each million-word tomes with more than 1,000 illustrations. For decades, graduate student project assistants at UW–Madison have helped build the project’s reputation for accuracy and consistency in facts, references and citations, and they have scoured archives and institutions around the globe for images and publication rights.
Once upon a time, one of those graduate students was Matthew Edney (MS’82, PhD’90), who is now the director of the History of Cartography Project and a professor of cartography at the University of Southern Maine. He was recently interviewed on the podcast What’s Your Map? by host Jerry Brotton about a map he loves teaching with — Joan Blaeu’s world map of 1662 — and how he came to be a map historian. Edney also talked about the project and how the History of Cartography has been made available for free online access.
“The map is literally setting the stage for a much larger work,” Edney says of Blaeu’s map on the podcast.
Edney’s fun and informative interview on What’s Your Map? celebrates the insights that maps are metaphors for personal life trajectories and guides to deeply rooted cultural concepts.
Listen to the episode at oculi-mundi.com/matthew-edney, or find What’s Your Map on your favorite podcast platform and look for “Riches and Rivalries: the Evolution of European Cartography with Matthew Edney.”
The final History of Cartography Project volume, Cartography in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Roger J. P. Kain and Judith A. Leimer (MS’82), will be published in July 2027.
Support the History of Cartography Project at supportuw.org/giveto/histcart.
