ACC GIS Presents
Mapping Grand Canyon National Park
Tom Patterson, US National Park Service (Ret.)
Four recently published maps of Grand Canyon National Park that owe their design inspiration to renowned mapmakers of the twentieth century, a relationship that I will explore.
The first map, the “South Rim Pocket Map,” targets the majority of visitors who go only to the South Rim and stay there for four hours or less. I based this map on the 1972 “New York Subway Map” by Massimo Vignelli, which distorts geography in order to squeeze information into tight geographic areas. Out of necessity I did likewise for the “South Rim Pocket Map,” which had a print run of three million copies last year.
My next map, “Hiking Below the Rims,” draws inspiration from Brad Washburn’s “Heart of the Grand Canyon” published in 1978 by National Geographic. I used a digital technique called texture shading to mimic the Swiss-produced rock hachuring found on Washburn’s map.
Up next in my talk is a map of the entire canyon made for the official park brochure. It features natural colors similar to those developed in the 1950s by USGS cartographer, Hal Shelton.
I will wrap things up with a panorama of the Grand Canyon that borrows a clever idea from late Austrian panoramist, Heinrich Berann. I warped a digital elevation model on a convex arc to create a hybrid 3D scene featuring a conventional map in the foreground and a panorama in the background. You can decide if it works.
About the Speaker
Tom Patterson recently retired as Senior Cartographer at the U.S. National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center. He has an M.A. in Geography from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Presenting terrain on maps is Tom’s passion. He maintains the ShadedRelief.com website and is the co-developer of the Natural Earth cartographic dataset and the Equal Earth projection for world maps. Tom is Executive Director of the North American Cartographic Information Society and Vice Chair of the International Cartographic Association, Commission on Mountain Cartography.
The first map, the “South Rim Pocket Map,” targets the majority of visitors who go only to the South Rim and stay there for four hours or less. I based this map on the 1972 “New York Subway Map” by Massimo Vignelli, which distorts geography in order to squeeze information into tight geographic areas. Out of necessity I did likewise for the “South Rim Pocket Map,” which had a print run of three million copies last year.
My next map, “Hiking Below the Rims,” draws inspiration from Brad Washburn’s “Heart of the Grand Canyon” published in 1978 by National Geographic. I used a digital technique called texture shading to mimic the Swiss-produced rock hachuring found on Washburn’s map.
Up next in my talk is a map of the entire canyon made for the official park brochure. It features natural colors similar to those developed in the 1950s by USGS cartographer, Hal Shelton.
I will wrap things up with a panorama of the Grand Canyon that borrows a clever idea from late Austrian panoramist, Heinrich Berann. I warped a digital elevation model on a convex arc to create a hybrid 3D scene featuring a conventional map in the foreground and a panorama in the background. You can decide if it works.
About the Speaker
Tom Patterson recently retired as Senior Cartographer at the U.S. National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center. He has an M.A. in Geography from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Presenting terrain on maps is Tom’s passion. He maintains the ShadedRelief.com website and is the co-developer of the Natural Earth cartographic dataset and the Equal Earth projection for world maps. Tom is Executive Director of the North American Cartographic Information Society and Vice Chair of the International Cartographic Association, Commission on Mountain Cartography.
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This guest lecture is for the students of the ACC GIS Cartography Course (GISC 1491), students, alumni and friends of the GIS department. Feel free to invite your colleagues. The lecture will be recorded and available by request. Please email sally.holl [at] austincc.edu with questions or for a link to the recording. Thanks to Tom Patterson for sharing his time and expertise with our students and GIS community.
Tuesday, 21 April, 11 AM CST - Participants can join 10 minutes before the meeting begins.
Meeting number:923 135 106
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