The National Atlas of the United States of America

Arch C. Gerlach reviews earlier plans and work on a U.S. national atlas and describes the purpose, scope, and characteristics of The National Atlas of the United States of America, then being prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey following a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences. He presents and justifies specifications for map content, scales, typography, symbols, colours, paper quality, and binding; summarizes a marketing study based on 8,000 questionnaires; examines the atlas’s relationship to regional and general reference atlases; and describes electronic computer methods used to compile its index.