Cartography's Defining Moment
The Peters Projection Controversy, 1974–1990
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14701688 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeremy Crampton (George Mason University), Jeremy W Crampton (0000-0001-5702-0430, George Mason University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 16-32 |
| Publication date | 1994-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cartographica The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0317-7173 • E-ISSN: 1911-9925 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/1821-6811-l372-345p |
| OpenAlex | W2016727826 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
This paper documents a famous cartographic controversy played out in the cartographic literature for more than fifteen years. In 1974, a German historian, Arno Peters, introduced what he called The Peters Projection to the cartographic community. It was immediately and roundly condemned as being a copy of one by James Gall, a nineteenth-century evangelist. Both men are discussed in their own contexts. The controversy that then arose is used to illustrate several matters: first, that intellectual traditions proceed through debate and contest, rather than by increasingly accurately describing the world; second, that ideology is an instrumental aspect of cartography. Both these points inform my sense of defining moment, which is used in two ways: on the one hand, the fact that many academic cartographers participated in a controversy about the worth of the Peters projection 'defines' something of the nature of the dominant perspective in cartography; on the other hand, the period over which the controversy occurred marks a transitional 'moment' about which contemporary cartography balances. It is argued that post-Peters cartography should engage ideology for a fully informed theory of cartography
Archaeology · Art · Cartography · CONTEST · Epistemology · Genealogy · Geography · German · Ideology · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Projection (relational algebra · Sociology · Visual arts · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Historical Geography and Cartography · Historical Geography and Geographical Thought · History · Law · Philosophy
Ripping up the Map
Everyday Reorientation
Equal Representation of Time and Space
The Peters Projection and the Latitude and Longitude of Recolonization
Making maps and mental images
The Origins and Development of J.B. Harley's Cartographic Theories
Another Look at the "Mercator Effect" on Global-Scale Cognitive Maps
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Highly cited | No |