Atlas of the Gold Coast
Ghana · Gold Coast Survey Department · 1949
Related Reviews & Articles
Gold Coast Atlas
Malcolm E. Bondy · 1951
This article reviews two significant additions to the Map Division's collections at the Library of Congress. The first is the 5th edition of the Gold Coast Atlas (1949), published by the Gold Coast Survey Department, containing twenty maps covering administrative areas, population, tribal distribution, languages, physical features, geology, mineral deposits, rainfall, forestry, agricultural products, cattle routes, and railways, along with a gazetteer listing 1,083 towns, 161 rivers, and 62 hills. However, it lacks supplementary textual material and maps on tropical diseases. The second comprises relief maps by Karl Wenschow, a leading postwar German cartographer, including sheets of German states, Europe, and the Americas at scales from 1:750,000 to 1:7,500,000, depicting topography, boundaries, railroads, highways, canals, and oil pipelines.
National atlases: a summary
Ena L. Yonge · 1957
This article provides a comprehensive review of national atlases published worldwide up to the time of writing. It notes that since the Geographical Review first coined the term 'Age of National Atlases' in 1940, the surge of nationalism after World War II has greatly accelerated the production and scope of such atlases. The author surveys 26 published national atlases and 3 in preparation. The article first emphasizes that a national atlas aims to portray all aspects of a country—physical, economic, and social—and highlights a welcome trend: the inclusion of map titles, legends, and text summaries in English or French for atlases published in less familiar languages. The review is then organized by region. For Europe, it details atlases from Austria (Atlas von Niederösterreich), Belgium (Atlas de Belgique), France (revised Atlas de France), and Germany (Deutscher Planungsatlas, specifically Atlas von Berlin), among others, discussing their institutional backing, content structure, scales, cartographic techniques, and unique features, such as Berlin's depiction of wartime damage and postwar development, and Belgium's detailed demographic and agricultural maps. Atlases from Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, and Norway are also mentioned. For Africa, the planned Atlas du Maroc is described. For Oceania, the Atlas of Australian Resources is reviewed, highlighting its origin in post-war resource assessment, its effective use of a large scale, and its focus on water resources and population distribution. For North America, the article reports on the progress of a Canadian national atlas and the initiation of the National Atlas of the United States, a collaborative federal effort to compile standardized thematic maps from various government agencies. The article concludes that these national atlases represent significant achievements in geographic and cartographic scholarship, serving as invaluable resources for students, planners, and businesses.
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