Cartographical progress: Suomen Kartasto/Atlas of Finland/Atlas över Finland

Summary

The review examines the 1960 fourth edition of the Atlas of Finland (Suomen Kartasto), edited by Leo Aario, and its separately published 1962 explanatory notes. It places the edition after those of 1899, 1910 and 1925, valuing the series as a record of Finland's social and economic changes and the new edition as a comprehensive geographical account of 1950–1959. Compilation was undertaken by the Finnish Geographical Society and the University of Helsinki's Institute of Geography; the General Survey Office handled cartography and plate reproduction. The reviewer praises the scholarship documented in the English explanatory notes; map legends and marginal information appear in Finnish, Swedish and English. The atlas contains 39 plates with 455 maps and diagrams, ranging up to 1:1,000,000, with most thematic maps at 1:6 million or 1:9 million. The reviewer argues that grouping small, single-distribution maps by theme improves readability and comparison and challenges the preference for uniformly large scales, citing Plate 5's eighteen climatic maps. Because technical production information is absent from the notes, the reviewer infers the printing procedures, including predominantly five-colour printing and usually ten to eighteen colour combinations per plate, and particularly praises Plate 29's European trade maps. Registration is generally good, but masking defects occur on Plates 14, 23 and 33. The chief criticism concerns place-names: the folding administrative map, Plate 39, names few settlements, while settlement names on the physical maps are printed in grey and are difficult to read.