Launched in 2004, the Ask Dr. Map web site has wowed the world of Cartography. To quote its home page, “this web site contains answers to questions about maps submitted to Dr. Map, the ‘anonymous’ author of the column ‘Ask Dr. Map,’ printed bi-monthly in the ACSM Bulletin. For questions and queries, send e-mail to askdrmap@cox.net. Dr. Map has a Ph.D. and a cartographic license, and is not afraid to use the latter!” (Even though it’s out of date…)
Sample Q & A:
Dear Dr. Map, Who is the father of geography?
Well, with the world of geography going back to Ancient Greece and maybe beyond, it is hardly surprising that many people have claims to this title and the official paternity of the discipline. There are parallels to the places where George Washington, father of our nation, is thought to have slept—there are hundreds of them! Dr. Map’s research has identified the following contenders for the “official” FOG (father of geography) title: Eratosthenes, W.M. Davis, Homer, Strabo, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Hecataios of Miletos, Theophrastus, Ptolemy, Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Marco Polo. This brings the contest to a final twelve. Let the competition begin!
The Greek scholar Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth and was the first to use the word “geography.” More recently, William Morris Davis both helped to establish geography as an academic discipline and advanced modern physical geography. The Greeks called Homer the FOG for his epic poem, “The Odyssey,” the oldest account of the fringe of the Greek world. Even Strabo called Homer the “father of geography.” Strabo (c. 63 BCE–c 21 CE) authored “Geographia,” in which he documented and criticized the works of other geographers of his day. Herodotus of Halicarnassus lived from about 484-425 B.C., traveled extensively, and wrote a great deal about it. Herodotus criticized Hecataeus, another FOG candidate, for “showing the Ocean running round a perfectly circular globe,” but Herodotus made similar mistakes. Nobody is perfect. Theophrastus was a disciple of Aristotle in the 2nd century B.C., and his “Studies on Plants” included a chapter on the geography of plants. Claudius Ptolemy (87-150) was an Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer who lived and studied in
Alexandria . Ptolemy also wrote a Geographia, including what would today be called an Atlas, which “dominated the whole of the Christian and Moslem world for 1,500 years.” Ptolemy introduced latitude and longitude. Thales of
Miletus , the home of two FOG candidates, seems a good place to hold a possible FOG final run-off, or a meeting of the Flat Earthers. Alexander Von Humboldt is widely credited as a FOG. The Prussian’s name is found on a Pacific current, a lunar crater, and thousands of other places. Humboldt tried to find a waterway to link the
Orinoco and the Amazon, and his work describing his travels was highly influential on modern geography. Lastly, Marco Polo (1254-1324) remains the most famous Westerner to ever travel the
Silk Road . In 24 years traveling Asia, he reached beyond Mongolia to China and became a confidant of Kublai Khan.
So which of these is the definitive FOG? First, let us also consider the FOC (father of cartography), the paternity of which is far less contentious. Here the contenders are only six: Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726), among the first to leave blanks on maps where there was no data, and destroyer of the myth that California was an island; Dutch map publisher and artist Ortelius; Claudius Ptolemy again; Gerhardus Mercator of the famous map projection; mathematician Pedro Nunes, author of the “Treatise on the Sphere”; and Rene Descartes, who wrote about optics and meteorology and who developed a new set of geometric math theories to describe our world in France, over 400 years ago.
Dr. Map sees only one name in common, that of Claudius Ptolemy. The discipline of Geography without maps is unthinkable. I therefore declare that Claudius Ptolemy (90 – 168 AD) is the official FOG and FOC of this column. Now, if only he were here to collect the prize, which is a large pile of summonses for paternity suits.
