National Atlas of Poland: Texts and Map Keys in English

Zur Geschichte der Nationalatlanten Polens

J. Rutkowski · 1996

This article reviews the history of Polish national atlases. Although geography and cartography developed rapidly after Poland's independence in 1918, the first national atlas in the strict sense was not published until 1973. The paper traces pioneering works from Romer's Geograficzno-Statystyczny Atlas Polski (1916) to the official statistical atlas of 1930 and the English-language Statistical Atlas of Poland published in London in 1942. Two attempts in the 1950s failed due to restricted access to data. Ultimately, the Narodowy Atlas Polski, led by the Institute of Geography of the Polish Academy of Sciences, was published in four installments between 1973 and 1978, comprising 127 plates, 634 maps, and 110 diagrams that comprehensively documented Poland's natural environment, population, economy, and socio-cultural conditions as of 1970. The atlas achieved remarkable public resonance with 46,000 subscriptions. Subsequently, due to political and economic transformations, work on a new Atlas Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej resumed in 1992.