Editorial problems in preparing the National Geographic Atlas of the World

Summary

This paper examines the editorial challenges encountered in producing the 115 map pages of the National Geographic Society's first World Atlas. The objective was to create an atlas serving laymen, scholars, students, travelers, and businessmen alike. Editorial work centered on evaluating and selecting source materials to establish an accurate base map, onto which political, physical, historical, and scientific data were integrated. Regarding name compilation, the Society has long adopted native spellings for countries using the Roman alphabet, while retaining conventional or anglicized forms for well-known names. For other nations, such as China, the Soviet Union, and various Arab states, transliteration follows systems developed by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and the British Permanent Committee on Geographic Names. Given the rapidly changing global landscape, international boundaries were continuously checked and revised to reflect the de facto situation at the time of printing, with territorial claims indicated through red annotations. The Atlas differs markedly from other world atlases in content and methodology, rendering its editorial problems particularly intricate.