Omer Tulippe · 1956
Writing as the head of Belgium’s National Survey Bureau, the author recounts the early compilation and publication of the Atlas du Survey National. The bureau collected existing maps and mapped statistical data for national planning, assembling a single-copy manuscript Atlas général du Royaume containing some 300 cartographic documents. According to the author, staff departures and recruitment restrictions reduced the bureau to two economists, one geographer and one draughtsman after 1952, considerably slowing production. The published survey atlas was intended to circulate selected documents more widely. Its selection took account of the Atlas de Belgique, whose sheets served as basic survey documents and were not duplicated.
The author reports that publication began in late 1954 and that, when distribution started in February 1956, the survey atlas contained 30 sheets, almost all concerning population. These supplemented sheets 21–26 of the Atlas de Belgique with material on population change, age structure, natural and migratory movements, employment and labour catchment areas. Sheets on recreation, nature protection and reserves were planned for 1956. This account concerns the initial publication stage, not the later linked volumes.
O. Tulippe · 1957
O. Tulippe reports on the origins, compilation and publication progress of Belgium’s Atlas du Survey National in 1957. Following a 1947 proposal to assemble evidence for national spatial planning, the Survey National service, established in 1949, collected existing cartographic documents and mapped statistical data, recording both current distributions and recent change. Its manuscript Atlas Général contained about 400 documents under twenty thematic headings. In 1954, V. Bure authorized publication of this collection as the Atlas du Survey National, using colour reproductions at 1:1,000,000. Plate selection avoided duplicating material planned for the separate Atlas de Belgique and emphasized detailed information useful for spatial planning. By 1957, sixty plates had appeared, chiefly concerning population and employment, with further coverage of tourism, protection, housing and urban facilities. Most used communes as their units; some used arrondissements, and suitable subjects received absolute-number and percentage maps. Notices introducing each series explained the plates and their sources. Tulippe also describes free distribution by justified application, unresolved arrangements for schools, an approved commentary project whose format remained undecided, three related studies, and the staff responsible for production.
O. Tulippe · 1958
O. Tulippe describes two Belgian national atlas projects, their compilation and their publication progress. He presents the Atlas de Belgique as a systematic scientific account of the country, useful for research, teaching, administration and public knowledge. The National Committee of Geography developed a preliminary plan in 1932, adopted an expanded plan in 1938 and established a permanent atlas commission in 1946 to define maps, recruit contributors and review their work. State funding in 1947 enabled the first plates to appear in 1948; subsequent funding cuts slowed publication, with about thirty plates issued at the time of writing. Its 52-plate plan spans eight sections, from Belgium’s European setting through physical, biological, human, economic and regional geography to administration. Maps generally use 1:500,000 or assemblies at smaller scales; natural-environment maps extend into neighbouring countries where possible. Reverse-side notices describe compilation techniques and sources. The Military Geographical Institute handles production. Tulippe also reports subscription arrangements, separate French and Dutch explanatory commentaries initiated by a 1956 decision, and proposed aerial-photograph plates.
The Atlas du Survey National originated in a 1947 proposal to assemble evidence for territorial planning. A service established in 1949 collected existing maps and mapped statistical data, recording both current distributions and recent change. Its manuscript Atlas général contained about 400 cartographic documents by 1957. In 1954, V. Bure authorized publication of this collection as the Atlas du Survey National, using colour reproductions at 1:1,000,000. It avoids duplicating the Atlas de Belgique’s planned plates and supplies additional planning-oriented detail. Sixty plates had appeared by 1957, covering population, employment and labour movements, unemployment, tourism, landscape and monument protection, housing and urban facilities. Most use municipal boundaries, with some arrondissement-based maps and paired absolute and percentage representations. Series notices explain sources and refer readers to relevant Atlas de Belgique plates. Tulippe closes with access arrangements, an approved but not yet fully specified commentary project, and earlier Survey studies published in Cahiers d’Urbanisme.
