Charles B. Hitchcock · 1966
American Geographical Society director Charles B. Hitchcock recounts the planning and early production of the Antarctic Map Folio Series, supported financially and advised by the National Science Foundation. An atlas proposal made in 1958 led to questionnaires circulated in 1959–1960, which received 178 responses. Intended for scientists and students seriously interested in Antarctica, the project adopted separately issued, single-subject folios so that completed material could be published without waiting for a bound atlas. The Society received the production contract in November 1962 and appointed Vivian Bushnell executive editor. Hitchcock describes her use of a classified file of some 3,000 scientific reports from 1957–1963, research-program lists, and consultations with scientists to plan the contents. Specialist advisers and international contributors assisted with individual subjects. Coverage and presentation varied with the evidence: flowering-plant maps would show every known locality, while lichen maps would illustrate selected distribution patterns; sparse marine-invertebrate records required contributors to assess what could meaningfully be mapped. At the time of writing, the aeronomy, ice-sheet characteristics, and maps-and-surveys folios had appeared. Hitchcock outlined a series covering 17 subjects, sometimes with two folios per subject, and reported further cartographic work in progress. Publication order initially depended on when authors completed their material.
Vivian C. Bushnell · 1972
Vivian C. Bushnell reports on the American Geographical Society's Antarctic Map Folio Series, planned as about 20 thematic folios summarizing current knowledge of Antarctica. Fifteen were in print; two more were scheduled for late 1972 and another for early 1973. Folio 16, Morphology of the Earth in the Antarctic and Subantarctic, combines sea-floor maps compiled by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp with Antarctic subglacial topography supplied by Charles R. Bentley. Its plates include bathymetry, the soundings used to draw contours, physiographic and tectonic provinces, bottom profiles, and the traverse and flight lines used to obtain subglacial soundings. Folio 17, called Marine Sediments of the Antarctic and Subantarctic in the report, brings together Grant Goodell's maps of surface sediments, collection sites and ferromanganese deposits, plus sea-floor photographs; sediment isopachs compiled by R. Houtz, M. Ewing, D. Hayes and B. Naini; fossil foraminifera maps by James Kennett and Ronald Echols; and fossil diatom maps by Jessie Donahue. Folios 18 and 19 were planned to cover Antarctic marine mammals and the history of Antarctic exploration and scientific investigation, respectively.
Vivian C. Bushnell · 1973
Vivian C. Bushnell reports that 17 of the 19 planned Antarctic Map Folio Series folios have been published: Folio 17, Marine Sediments of the Southern Oceans, appeared in June, followed in September by a folio identified as Folio 18, Antarctic Glaciation. Antarctic Birds and Antarctic Mammals are scheduled for 1975. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and prepared and distributed by the American Geographical Society, the series presents recent Antarctic research through thematic maps and explanatory texts covering aeronomy, geology, geomorphology, glaciology, oceanography, meteorology, biology and soil science. Specialists work with expert advisory panels, compiling maps from national Antarctic research programs and synthesizing current knowledge in the accompanying texts. Bushnell describes the series as a comprehensive reference for Antarctic and related research and an essential resource for polar-research libraries and institutions.
