Skip to main content

Cartographies of Travel and Navigation

Finding one’s way with a map is a relatively recent phenomenon. In premodern times, maps were used, if at all, mainly for planning journeys in advance, not for guiding travelers on the road. With the exception of navigational sea charts, the use of maps by travelers only became common in the modern era; indeed, in the last two hundred years, maps have become the most ubiquitous and familiar genre of modern cartography.

Examining the historical relationship between travelers, navigation, and maps, Cartographies of Travel and Navigation considers the cartographic response to the new modalities of modern travel brought about by technological and institutional developments in the twentieth century. Highlighting the ways in which the travelers, operators, and planners of modern transportation systems value maps as both navigation tools and as representatives of a radical new mobility, this collection brings the cartography of travel—by road, sea, rail, and air—to the forefront, placing maps at the center of the history of travel and movement.

Richly and colorfully illustrated, Cartographies of Travel and Navigation ably fills the void in historical literature on transportation mapping.


344 pages | 11 color plates, 81 halftones, 4 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 2006

The Kenneth Nebenzahl Jr. Lectures in the History of Cartography

Geography: Cartography

History: American History

Travel and Tourism: Tourism and History

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
 

Chapter 1.  Introduction

James R. Akerman

Chapter 2.  Milieus of Mobility: Itineraries, Route Maps, and Road Maps

Catherine Delano-Smith

Chapter 3.  Surveying the Seas: Establishing the Sea Routes to the East Indies

Andrew S. Cook

Chapter 4.  Mapping a Transcontinental Nation: Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century American Rail Travel Cartography

Jerry Musich

Chapter 5.  Twentieth-Century American Road Maps and the Making of a National Motorized Space

James R. Akerman

Chapter 6.  “Up in the Air in More Ways Than One”: The Emergence of Aeronautical Charts in the United States

Ralph E. Ehrenberg

Chapter 7.  Maps on Wheels: The Evolution of Intelligent Automobile Navigation          

Robert L. French
 

Notes

List of Contributors

Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press