National atlas project

This notice reports the launch of a project to prepare a national atlas of the United States for the research and reference needs of government agencies, business and industrial firms, and educational institutions. More than a decade of consideration included preliminary planning by the Department of State, the American Geographical Society and a National Academy of Sciences committee. That committee recommended production by a federal mapping agency, preferably the Geological Survey, which was beginning the project. Arch C. Gerlach, Chief of the Map Division and holder of the Chair of Geography at the Library of Congress, was detailed to the Geological Survey for approximately two years to head the National Atlas Project.