Ghana

Malcolm E. Bondy

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.

Ena L. Yonge

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.

R. W. Anson

This is an academic review of the first folio of the National Atlas of Ghana, edited by Professor E. A. Boateng under the Ghana National Atlas Project of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The folio comprises 16 maps covering themes such as agriculture, demography, transport, education, and banking. The review notes that the atlas employs a uniform scale of 1:1,500,000, facilitating cross-map comparison, yet the data span from 1960 to 1970, requiring cautious interpretation. Cartographically, the maps utilize diverse symbolization techniques including pie graphs, proportional circles, dot maps, choropleths, and flow lines. However, the review criticizes the garish color scheme, inconsistent intensities of standard colors, and inconsistent use of black versus grey for titles and borders. While type styles and sizes are generally well chosen, the placement of symbols over lettering causes confusion. The reviewer concludes that greater consistency would have improved the atlas's overall appearance and legibility.