National and regional atlases: sources, bibliography, articles: supplement for 1963-1967

Summary

This bibliographical supplement, prepared by Halina Tuszyńska-Rękawek and Jolanta Drecka under the direction of Stanisław Leszczycki at the Institute of Geography of the Polish Academy of Sciences, was issued in 1968 for the Twenty-First International Geographical Congress. It continues an international documentation project initiated after the 1958 Moscow meeting of the International Geographical Union’s Committee of National Atlases. The first bibliography, published for the 1960 Stockholm Congress, recorded 130 atlases issued between 1900 and 1959, although only about thirty percent fully met the criteria established for national atlases. A substantially expanded 1964 edition covered 361 national and regional atlases published through 1962 and broadened the field to include comprehensive regional works, atlases spanning groups of countries, and relevant scholarly literature. The present supplement updates that record for 1963–1967. It identifies 191 atlases, approximately forty of which are continuations or revised editions of earlier publications. Entries were compiled from holdings of the Institute of Geography and from an extensive range of international bibliographical, geographical, cartographical, and reviewing journals. Information concerning the Soviet Union was critically revised by the cartographer K. A. Salischev. The volume is organized into three principal sections: a list of documentary sources; a bibliography of national and regional atlases, including associated reviews; and a bibliography of articles addressing atlas design, production, classification, and use. Atlas entries are arranged geographically by continent and country, with national atlases generally preceding regional or specialized works and individual titles ordered alphabetically. Coverage encompasses Europe, Africa, North, Central, and South America, Asia, Australia and Oceania, and Antarctica. The records provide publication data and, where available, editors, institutional sponsors, cartographers, physical dimensions, map scales, numbers of sheets or pages, edition histories, references to earlier listings, and citations of critical reviews. The geographical index demonstrates the breadth of coverage, extending from entire continents and states to provinces, republics, administrative districts, metropolitan regions, river valleys, islands, and polar territories. Separate indexes of personal and geographical names facilitate access and connect atlases with their editors, authors, reviewers, and cartographers. Rather than offering an interpretive history of cartography, the publication functions as a systematically organized reference instrument. It documents the rapid international growth of national and regional atlas production during the mid-1960s, supports comparative research on atlas programmes and mapping practices, and reflects sustained cooperation among the Polish Academy of Sciences, the IGU committee, national specialists, libraries, and scholarly periodicals.