Raisz, Erwin J. Erwin Raisz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 2 Erwin Raisz From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Erwin Raisz (1 March 1893, Löcse, Hungary - 1 December 1968, Bangkok, Thailand) was a Erwin Josephus Raisz Hungarian-born American cartographer, best known Born March 1, 1893 for his physiographic maps of landforms. Löcse, Hungary Died December 1, 1968 (aged 75) Biography Bangkok, Thailand Fields Born in Löcse, Hungary (now part of Slovakia) in cartography, geography, geology 1893, Raisz was the son of a civil engineer, who Institutions Institute of Geographical Exploration introduced him to maps through his work. The son at Harvard University received his degree in civil engineering and Alma mater Columbia University (M.A.), (PhD) architecture from the Royal Polytechnicum in Budapest in 1914, and after serving in the army Known for artful and insightful cartography during World War I, he immigrated to New York in 1923. He worked for the Ohman Map Company while studying for his 1929 Ph.D. at Columbia University. He offered a course in cartography while a student, one of the first such in the United States. In 1931 he joined the Institute of Geographical Exploration at Harvard University, where he taught cartography and was curator of the map collection for 20 years. He created a significant body of work using hand-drawn pen-and-ink techniques, which during that period were largely being replaced by photo-mechanical processes and scribing. Because they were hand-drawn, his maps and graphics have a distinctive look to them, unique to his hand. He was author of the first cartography textbook in English, General cartography (1938). Raisz is best known for his physiographic maps, which describe landforms using his "orthoapsidal" or "armadillo" projection (essentially a small-scale variation on an isometric projection). Created for continents, nations and states, they form a solid corpus of work whose use continues today. Raisz Landform Maps, operated by his family, continues to publish much of his work. Sources Biography of Raisz (http://www.raiszmaps.com/biography.html) on the Raisz Landform Maps web site. Designerati: Cartographers - Erwin Raisz (http://designorati.com/cartography/history- 13/2005/cartographers-erwin-raisz/ Robinson, Arthur H. (March 1970). "Erwin Josephus Raisz, 1893-1968". Annals of the Association of American Geographers 60 (1): 189-93. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1970.tb00712.x (https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-8306.1970.tb00712.x). ISSN 0004-5608 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0004-5608). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Raisz 7/27/2015 Erwin Raisz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 2 Bibliography Raisz, Erwin Josephus (1938), General cartography, McGraw-Hill Series in Geography, New York; London. Raisz, Erwin Josephus (1948). General cartography. McGraw-Hill Series in Geography (2d ed.). New York. Retrieved from"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erwin_Raisz&oldid=660472216" Categories: American cartographers / Harvard University faculty 1893 births 1968 deaths This page was last modified on 2 May 2015, at 18:34. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Raisz 7/27/2015 The scenery of Mt. Desert Island: its origin and development Author Raisz, Erwin, 1893-1968. Title Available from: The scenery of Mt. Desert Island: its origin and development, by Erwin J. Raisz Offsite - Place Request for delivery within 2 business days Call Number: 378.7CZO R132 Published Available [New York, 1929] Description Request: p. [121]-186. illus., fold. map. 25 cm. Offsite Series Contributions from the Dept. of Geology of Columbia University ; V. o Rare Book - Request at Rare Book Lib (Non-Circ) 42, no. 1, 1929. Today's Hours: 9am-4:45pm Subjects Call Number: CZO R132 Geology > Maine > Mount Desert Island. Available Mount Desert Island (Me.) Request: Also Listed Under Special Collections Wood, George McLane, 1850-1930. Notes Google Books Vita. More info at Google books "The geology of Mount Desert, by George McLane Wood": 1 folded leaf (58 X 48 cm) with map on verso, laid in. "Reprinted from the Annals of the New York academy of sciences, vol. XXXI." Cover-title Thesis (PH. D.)-Columbia university, 1929. Bibliography: p. 185-186. Language English LCCN 30004638 Format Book, Thesis Bookmark As http://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/1934164 Natural History Division m. Dour Geology, N.P.a 18 ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Vol. XXXI, Pp. 121-186 Editor, HERBERT F. SCHWARZ THE SCENERY OF MT. DESERT ISLAND: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT BY ERWIN J. RAISZ and A CAREMY THE S CLENCES 1315 takes 6 NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY September 18, 1929 7/27/2015 Cartographers: Erwin Raisz Designorati Designorati CARTOGRAPHY, FEATURES CARTOGRAPHERS: ERWIN RAISZ SAT, 01 OCTOBER 2005 | SAMUEL JOHN KLEIN | 1 COMMENT Cartographic Giant of the 20th century pioneered and perfected the physical relief map A Section of Erwin Raisz's Landform Map of the United States (courtesy Raisz Landform Maps) Erwin Raisz (1893-1968) has, at this writing, left precious little in the way of biographical information, but his achievements in the field of rendering and education shaped the mapmaking field of the early-mid 20th Century to an unmistakeable degree, if for no other reason than providing the public with the example of the sheer beauty and perfection that landform mapping can achieve. Born in Hungary, he was the son of a civil engineer, being introduced to maps at a young age. From there it became a life devoted to studying the maps, geography and cartography with time spent in the army and in engineering. In 1923 he emigrated to the United States with a degree in civil engineering and architecture from Royal Polytechnicum in Budapest and attended Columbia University graduate school. Eventually he found a place at Harvard University where he taught cartography and was curator of the Map Collection for almost 20 years from 1931. Educational Pioneer http://designorati.com/articles/t1/cartography/232/cartographers-erwin-raisz.php 1/3 7/27/2015 Cartographers: Erwin Raisz Designorati During that time he perfected the ongoing gifts that are some of cartography's greatest treasures. Amongt them are the first cartography textbook in the English language, General Cartography, first published in 1938, a copy of which exists (a 1948 2nd edition) in my own collection. The book itself is beautiful, with detailed information on how to hand render maps, how to construct projections, deep mapmapking history and the state of the surveying and mapping art of the day, accompanied throughout with illustrations that were plainly produced by a master of the art, each a work of art in its own right. Regarded as a great talent by his peers, his works and papers were read widely national and international professional organizations. He pioneered and perfected certain statistical styles and created at least one standard projection. But his other great achievement was the landform map, two samples of which can be seen above and just to the left. A closeup sample of the astounding Raisz landform drafting style (courtesy Raisz Landform Maps) Design Pioneer Raisz's landform maps straddle the line between information design and pure art, and it isn't hard to see why. Landforms graduate from mere symbols to three-dimensional forms which are SO solid one almost wants to reach out and touch the mountains, valleys, rivers, hills and plains. Equipped with an excellent memory and relentless output, he redefined what the printed map can represent. His famous landform maps of countries and contintents made nearby lands familiar and distant lands real places one could actually picture themselves walking about in, rather than mere concepts. They resonated with map lovers near and far. Pierce Lewis, Professor of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, was once quoted as saying: I have long been fond of telling students that Raisz's landform map is the best map of the U.S. that I know of, irrespective of subject. No matter how one sets about to judge a map - as cartography, as art, or as a vivid and accurate rendition of the American land - the map is incomparable. I have traveled with it for more than thirty years; indeed, to travel by air in the U.S. without Raisz is (to me) unthinkable. http://designorati.com/articles/t1/cartography/232/cartographers-erwin-raisz.php 2/3 III 7/27/2015 Cartographers: Erwin Raisz I Designorati Raisz Today Perhaps the best news for cartophiles, casual or otherwise, is that Raisz Landform Maps are still available today. Ranging in prices from USD $4.00 to USD $30.00, offerings include the landform displays of the United States and the world's continents, relief maps of the world, and of various countries. Truly Raisz landform maps are timeless, holding up well against maps made today, only surpassed by the crystal clear satellite photography of today-but in them, there is no artistic human hand. One of the utmost expressions of the intersections of art and cartography, Raisz's maps draw the viewer in, involving them esthetically as well as informationally, a feat few maps since have been able to claim. (Many thanks to Raisz Landform Maps, without whose generous assistance biographical information about Erwin Raisz would have been impossible to come by, and for granting permission to use the above illustrations) http://designorati.com/articles/t1/cartography/232/cartographers-erwin-raisz.php 3/3 Raisz Landform Maps - Biography Page 1 of 2 , Raisz Landform Maps VIEW SAMPLE PRICE LIST ORDER FORM BIOGRAPHY REVIEWS LINKS MISCELLANY BIOGRAPHY: ERWIN RAISZ Raisz Landform Maps has been selling hand- drawn topographical maps for over forty years. The genius behind these maps is the work done by renowned cartographer Erwin Raisz (1893-1968). He was born in Hungary, the son of a civil engineer, who was introduced to maps and their uses when his father took him on assignments. Raisz received a degree in civil engineering and architecture from the Royal Polytechnicum in Budapest in 1914. After a brief term in the army he worked for an engineering firm before immigrating to the United States in 1923. He worked for the Ohman Map Company in New York City while attending graduate school at Columbia University. While at Columbia he was the first to offer a course in cartography, and it was one of the first such courses in the United States. In 1929 he received his Ph.D. in Geology with a dissertation entitled "Scenery of Mount Desert Island: its origin and development." In 1931 Raisz joined the Institute of Geographical Exploration at Harvard University. For nearly twenty years he taught cartography at Harvard and was curator of the Map Collection. In the course of his career he was affiliated with Clark University and the Universities of Virginia, Florida, British Columbia and Rio de Janeiro. He has produced thousands of maps, dozens of articles, four books and two atlases. His early work consisted mainly of landform drawings. He was accurate, fast and prolific. His fine drawing ability was complemented by an excellent memory. His drawing style explained the landscape, allowing for easy interpretation of landform features. "Combining a scientist's fascination with geomorphology with an artist's drawing ability, he created maps that continue to intrigue us with their accuracy, aesthetic appeal, and elegance.' (Joseph Garver, Boston Map Society Newsletter, 11/98). The style advanced by Raisz and others was unique. Raisz perfected the pen and ink style, his work is recognized by geographers and cartographers as unsurpassed. He significantly helped to shape the field of cartography in the United States. He was appointed the first map supplement Editor of the "Annals of http://www.raiszmaps.com/biography.html 7/27/2015 Raisz Landform Maps - Biography Page 2 of 2 the Association of American Geographers." His papers were read before meetings of the members of the Association of American Geographers, The American Congress on Surveying and Mapping and the International Geographical Congress. At the time of his death he was assisting in the compilation of the "National Atlas of the United States." His "General Cartography," first published in 1938, was the first such text in the English language. He perfected block-pile maps, introduced value-by-area-cartograms, created the orthoapsidal projection, but is best known for his landform maps. Raisz's interests were varied and he was particularly interested in advancing the understanding of cartography. He was very aware of the changes time had on the cartographer's craft. In his later years he put effort into advancing ideas, such as the use of aerial photographs. He was looking into the use of Gemini photographs in cartography and was also skeptical about the use of computers to produce maps. He feared that there would be a loss of reality and that these maps were being produced by skilled technicians with little interest in geography or cartography. He traveled extensively around the world for his work and at the time of his death on December 1, 1968 he was in Bangkok, en route to present a paper at the International Geographical Congress meeting in New Delhi. Raisz Landform Maps continues to be a family owned company committed to insuring that Erwin Raisz's work lives on. HOME I VIEW SAMPLE I PRICE LIST I BIOGRAPHY I REVIEWS I LINKS MISCELLANY http://www.raiszmaps.com/biography.html 7/27/2015 Raisz Landform Maps - Reviews - Page 1 of 2 Raisz Landform Maps VIEW SAMPLE PRICE LIST ORDER FORM BIOGRAPHY REVIEWS LINKS MISCELLANY "Earth Scientists generally agree that the hand-drawn landform maps of Erwin Raisz are classics of the cartographers art. His large 1939 (revised for the sixth and last time in 1957) map of the old 48 United States, in particular, must rank as a national treasure. There really are no other maps quite like these, and I dare say there will never again be anything else like them." Richard J. Pike, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA "I have long been fond of telling students that Raisz's landform map is the best map of the U.S. that I know of, irrespective of subject. No matter how one sets about to judge a map - as cartography, as art, or as a vivid and accurate rendition of the American land the map is incomparable. I have traveled with it for more than thirty years; indeed, to travel by air in the U.S. without Raisz is (to me) unthinkable." Peirce Lewis, Professor of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA " "... there is still time to celebrate a tireless worker by hand, the John Henry of cartography, the late Harvard cartographer Erwin Raisz, who drove a steel pen. Long ago he drew the U.S. landforms using a clear vocabulary for hatch marks, stipples and shading to represent relief symbolically. Moreover he lettered right across his map a whole gazetteer naming a couple of thousand towns, streams, and forms." Philip Morrison, Scientific American, June 1992 "Like a body stripped of its clothing, Erwin Raisz's "Landforms of the United States" offers us the lay of the land. Or SO it would seem. Actually, beneath the vivid but highly arbitrary portrayal of landforms, lies a wealth of "cultural" information: nominal, urban, political. Yet all has been subordinated to Raisz's commitment (for this too is a committed map) to share with us his interest in physiography, that is, in the "natural" features of valley and hill, plain and plateau." Dennis Wood, Orion Magazine, Spring 1994 "Everytime I take a look at "Map of the landforms of the U.S. I cannot help but admire that fine workmanship more and more. Furthermore I learn something every time I review it. I can hardly conceive how the human hand can be directed to carry out such meticulous work - but you have done it." E.J.P "Your maps are just the combination of cartography and artistry I have been looking for in maps." U.K. "...I speak of them as art, because it is that, which in additon to their impeccable scholarship, has caught my fancy. They are really works of beauty." F.M. http://www.raiszmaps.com/reviews.html 7/27/2015 ILL Map Collection Is Window to Past, Present Page 1 of 4 the HARVARD January 28, 1999 UNIVERSITY Gazette HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES contents Map Collection Is Window to Past, notes Present newsmakers police log By Alvin Powell Contributing Writer Gazette home Gazette archives In 1808, Harvard acquired 10,000 maps of America from a Harvard News German collector who gathered the maps while compiling a Office history of America. Feedback Those maps formed the initial Harvard Map Collection, the SEARCH THE nation's oldest. From those GAZETTE beginnings, the Collection CAMBRIDGE today has some 400,000 maps and 15,000 books, of search which 10,000 are atlases. The Collection's maps date back to 1511 and cover everything from Colonial America to modern population density and CHARGE:, incidence of crime. They've come from hundreds, if not thousands, of sources over the years and together make From an Erwin Raisz hand- up a valuable resource for drawn Christmas card. Harvard faculty and students. "I've used it every year since I started teaching in the fall of 1965," said John Womack Jr., the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics. "It's a terrific resource. I wouldn't be surprised to find anything in there." For the next few months, the Collection is showing off some of its holdings in an exhibit of the work of Harvard mapmaker Erwin Raisz. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/maps.html 7/27/2015 Map Collection Is Window to Past, Present Page 2 of 4 Raisz, who specialized in landform maps, which depict the earth's physical features, was one of the last pen-and-ink map makers, according to Head of the Map Collection David Cobb. Raisz was SO careful in drawing mountains, streams, and other land features that today his maps are collected as art. "He developed the landform map to such an extent of detail above his contemporaries that it became an art form," Cobb said. The exhibit is just outside the Map Collection in Pusey Library. It opened this month and runs through July 1. The exhibit, jointly sponsored by the Boston Map Society, presents a variety of Raisz's maps, along with some diaries, sketch books, and personal items like Christmas cards, which Raisz and his wife made up and illustrated to inform family and friends about the past year. Raisz taught cartography from 1931 to 1950 at the now-closed Harvard Institute for Geographical Exploration. He also curated the Institute's map collection. Though the Harvard Map Collection has a wide assortment of maps from all over the world, its collection of early American and European maps is particularly extensive. Though many maps have been donated to the Collection, Harvard has actively sought out and purchased maps since the late 1800s, Cobb said. Although collecting efforts continue all over the world, there is an emphasis on gathering the maps of the former Soviet Union, where many Martin von Wyss is a digital once-secret maps are cartography specialist at the Harvard now available. Map Collection. In fact, maps of some security-conscious countries, like Turkey and South Korea, are more readily available from former Soviet sources than from the countries themselves. "We are buying maps of Turkey and Cuba that are in Russian because we can't get them from the original country," Cobb said. "We can't get maps from South Korea but we can get Russian maps of South Korea." http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/maps.html 7/27/2015 Map Collection Is Window to Past, Present Page 3 of 4 In recent years, faculty and students using the Collection can get maps from another unique source: themselves. With computerization and the increasing availability of federal, state, and local data, Collection staff can help students and faculty create their own maps, showing whatever data is pertinent to their subject of study. "We feel at times the data rains on us," Cobb said. "We used to have to wait for Rand McNally or the U.S. government to produce a map. Now we have that data and we can produce a map any way a student or faculty member wants it." Another thrust has been to expand the Collection's presence on the World Wide Web, Cobb said. The Collection's Web page contains a few maps, including the Massachusetts Electronic Atlas, which uses GIS, a geographic information system to help users create their own maps of Massachusetts based on factors such as crime, median income, and other statistics of their choosing. Prue Adler, assistant executive director of the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, D.C., said GIS projects such as the Massachusetts Electronic Atlas provide access to data in a visual way not available until recently. "[GIS] gives the ability to manipulate information visually in a way very, very differently from what we had before," Adler said. "Harvard has done quite an extraordinary job, not just in making it accessible to the University community, but to the broader community through its Website," Adler said. The Web presence and increasing availability of government information has expanded the pool of people who use the Collection, Cobb said. From the traditional users in the humanities have been added Harvard Map Collection Director David Cobb describes two everyone from botanists panoramas by Erwin Raisz, to researchers from the Harvard's most prominent School of Public Health. mapmaker. In the early '90s, perhaps a half-dozen people would come into the Collection in a typical day. Today the number is closer to 50, Cobb said. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/maps.html 7/27/2015 Map Collection Is Window to Past, Present Page 4 of 4 "We've seen a tremendous increase [in usage]," Cobb said. "Digital information has brought people here who never were aware there was a Map Collection." Managing the flood of data brought on by the Information Age is one of the Collection's biggest challenges, Cobb said. Collection managers need to ensure that the historic paper collection is not forgotten in the flood of new data. "We don't want to over-emphasize one or the other," Cobb said. "If we stayed just with the paper collection, we would have become a paper museum. But we don't want to become a computer lab, either." The Collection's strength, from Cobb's point of view, is the fact that it does have extensive collections of both old maps and current records. One can see students in the library, he said, working at a computer, with sheets of data spread before them and an old map or atlas on the floor near their chair. "People can look at old maps of the 15th and 16th centuries and follow changes in boundaries, transportation systems, and other things up to the present day," Cobb said. Map Maker Erwin Raisz What: Exhibit of the work of Harvard mapmaker Erwin Raisz When: Through July 1 Times: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where: Harvard Map Collection, Pusey Library Sponsors: Harvard Map Collection and the Boston Map Society G Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/01.28/maps.html 7/27/2015