[ISHMap-List] New book on history of women in cartography

[Will Van Den Hoonaard]

Dear Colleagues:


Wilfrid Laurier University Press has just published my new book,

Map Worlds: A History of Women in Cartography.  Here is a description of it:


Map Worlds plots a journey of discovery through the world of women map-makers from the golden age of cartography in the sixteenth-century Low Countries to tactile maps in contemporary Brazil. Author Will C. van den Hoonaard examines the history of women in the profession, sets out the situation of women in technical fields and cartography-related organizations, and outlines the challenges they face in their careers.

The book explores women as colourists in early times, describes the major houses of cartographic production, and delves into the economic function of intermarriages among cartographic houses and families. It relates how in later centuries, working from the margins, women produced maps to record painful tribal memories or sought to remedy social injustices. In more contemporary times, one woman so changed the way we think about continents that the shift has been likened to the Copernican revolution. Other women created order and wonder about the lunar landscape, and still others turned the art and science of making maps inside out, exposing the hidden, unconscious, and subliminal "text" of maps. Shared by all these map-makers are themes of social justice and making maps work for the betterment of humanity.

If you need more information about this book, please consult: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/vandenhoonaard-map.shtml


Will C. van den Hoonaard, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Department of Sociology
University of New Brunswick
POB 4400
Fredericton, NB Canada E3G 5A3
Tel (506) 452-9665 (direct line)