National Atlases: The National Atlas of the United States of America

Summary

This paper provides a critical review of national atlas development, prompted by the publication of the *National Atlas of the United States of America*. Through a comparative analysis of the U.S. Atlas with other major national and international atlases—such as the *International Atlas*, the *Atlas of Israel*, and loose-leaf examples from Spain, Australia, and Canada—the study examines evolving definitions, cartographic design, content selection, and physical format. Key findings highlight the U.S. Atlas’s exceptional thematic coverage of economic, demographic, and socio-cultural data, aided by transparent overlays for cross-referencing, but note shortcomings in reference map scales (1:2,000,000 for the mainland) and the omission of relief, which prioritizes legibility over depicting settlement-environment relationships. The paper critiques the overemphasis on administrative boundaries and ephemeral mapping indices, questioning their necessity in a permanent bound volume. The debate between firm binding and loose-leaf formats is explored, advocating a hybrid solution: a bound volume for stable reference and physical maps, and a flexible second volume for rapidly changing economic and urban data. Cartographic weaknesses in the rendering of historical exploration routes are also identified. Ultimately, the U.S. Atlas is welcomed as a long-awaited foundational reference, yet its appearance underscores the lack of a comparable *National Atlas of Britain*. The paper concludes by urging renewed official support to produce a national atlas of the United Kingdom by 1975, leveraging institutional reorganization and newly available census data.