National Geographic collection over 130 years: 6,000 maps from the ocean floor to the stars

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

All 6,000 maps published in National Geographic magazine from 1888 to the present are available online for the first time. They are presented in high resolution and differ in the widest variety of covered places, themes and events: from maps of constellations and stars to the ocean floor, bird migrations, the Kremlin and the origin of flowers.

National Geographic Magazine, founded as the official publication of the National Geographic Society of the United States, was first published in October 1888. Even then, a map was attached to the first number. Over a 130-year history, the archive of the publication has accumulated over 6,000 maps that explore the entire globe and even space beyond its borders.

The maps were originally seen as a reference material to serve the Society's foundational mission to educate its members and readers in the field of geography. At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the magazine's audience did not have the opportunity to visit remote parts of the world. The cards, issued as additions to the edition, opened an unknown world to the readers.

In the 1960s and 70s, the magazine's cartographic department expanded the scope of additional maps. History, culture, nature and other areas were added to the topic. For the first time, a collection of all digitized maps ever published in the magazine, since the first issue, is available on the Internet.

The entire archive is available to subscribers only, however a selection of NatGeoMaps curators can be viewed on the NatGeo All Over the Map blog, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Here are some cards from this collection:

Map of the Kremlin, created in 1966. Soviet Moscow prohibited aerial photography of the Kremlin, so National Geographic had to look for other ways to create a bird's-eye view of the Kremlin. The map was supposed to complement a feature article about an American living in Moscow. The artists studied every available terrain diagram and ground level photograph to create a map. The National Geographic editor brought the resulting sketch to Moscow to check it on the spot.

The 1928 "Map of Discovery" depicts the political boundaries of the time, but created it in the style of sixteenth-century nautical charts, with pictorial images adorning its corners. This map is one of five original wall maps painted by renowned illustrator Newell Converse Wyeth. They still hang at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.

The Bottom of the Indian Ocean map, published in October 1967, was produced by cartographer Marie Tharp and geologist Bruce Heezen. It was the first in a series of five maps that helped convey the concept of plate tectonics to a wide audience.

Map of the skies from the December 1957 issue of National Geographic. It shows the stars and constellations as they could be seen standing at the North and South Poles of the Earth.

This is the first map to be published in the first issue of National Geographic magazine in October 1888. It is dedicated to stormy meteorological conditions that went down in history as the "Great Blizzard of 1888". It was one of the worst snowstorms in US history.

The first "Map of the World" appeared in National Geographic in the December 1922 issue. For it, the cartographic projection of Van der Greenten was used with less distortion than in the Mercator projection.

Published in May 1968, the World of Flowers map traces the origins of 117 types of flowers. Starting to travel to parts of the world, people carried plants with them. Explorers, conquerors and adventurers returned home with flowers from distant places. Colonists brought seeds and bulbs to the New World. Some of them have become so accustomed to the new lands that they hardly remember their origins. For example, the Dutch tulip is native to Turkey; and the "French" marigolds arrived in Europe with conquistadors from Mexico.

The map, published in October 1984, depicted the path of the Douro River, which originates in the mountains of Spain and flows into the Atlantic Ocean in Portugal.

Latest bird migration map with additions made by National Geographic in April 2018. This is the third version in a series that illustrates the seasonal migration of birds. The first appeared in August 1979.

The map "Byzantine World", published in December 1983, shows the places of battles, monasteries and significant centers of the heyday of the empire under Justinian I (527-565 AD).