Atlas de la Republique Tchecoslovaque

Summary

This article presents the compilation of the Atlas of the Czechoslovak Republic. Following the Great War, the newly established state felt a pressing need for an atlas that graphically represented its conditions. Several experts collaborated to outline a program, initially comprising seventy sheets of 45 x 87 cm, later reduced to fifty-four due to financial constraints. The Atlas resulted from collaboration among the Faculty of Sciences, the Polytechnic School, and several central state institutes. It depicts Czechoslovakia from geographical, climatological, demographic perspectives, covering soil production, industry, commerce, transport, and cultural conditions, with over four hundred maps on fifty-four sheets at scales of 1:1,250,000 and 1:5,000,000. Considerable difficulties had to be overcome, as the country united territories formerly under two different administrations, regional divisions, and official statistics. The work was to be published by Orbis under the auspices of the Czech Academy of Sciences, with reproduction by the Army Geographic Service. Publication was scheduled to begin in fascicles in October 1931, with completion by late 1932, at a sale price of about 600 francs. Mr. Salamon noted that the Atlas frequently employed graphic statistical methods to achieve true geographical characteristics, with Professor Laska of Charles University contributing many novel ideas.