Presence of school cartography in Erwin Raisz’s lifework

ABSTRACT

During the twentieth century, Erwin Raisz researched and worked on diverse cartographic areas: he developed the physiographic method for the representation of landforms, cartograms for data representation, a new map projection, etc. The cartographic community does not usually relate his name to school cartography, however, he made numerous works that were used in schools because of its high intrinsic educational value. The current paper gives a general and brief background on those works developed by Raisz and used by the teachers not only in schools of the United States, but of other countries too. His innumerable maps were and are examples of how cartography can be the main source of didactic tools in schools and how these tools can stimulate the pupils’ interest towards maps.

ABSTRAITE

Pendant le 20ème siècle, Erwin Raisz a fait des recherches et a travaillé sur différents domaines cartographiques : il a développé entre autres une méthode physiograhique pour la représentation du relief, des cartogrammes pour la représentation de données, une nouvelle projection. La communauté cartographique n'associe pas son nom à la cartographie scolaire, pourtant il a fait de nombreux travaux qui ont été utilisés pour l'enseignement en raison de leur forte valeur pédagogique. Ce papier donne un aperçu général et concis des travaux développés par Raisz et utilisés par les enseignants non seulement des écoles américaines mais également d'autres pays. Ses innombrables cartes étaient et sont encore des exemples illustrant la capacité de la cartographie à être la principale source d'outils didactiques à l'école et comment ces outils peuvent stimuler l'intérêt des étudiants pour les cartes.

KEYWORDS:

• Erwin Raisz
• school cartography
• school atlas
• cartogram
• textbook

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

José Jesús Reyes Nuñez

José Jesús Reyes Nunez is Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests lie in Cartography for Children (teaching of cartographic concepts, map use and web mapping services in Elementary and Secondary Schools), Digital Cartography (including GIS- and web-based solutions), as well as Raisz Erwin’s lifework. Author of more than 20 articles in scientific publications and more than 60 papers in different events, he has collaborated as cartographer in more than 40 textbooks and atlases. He is responsible for the organization of the Barbara Petchenik Map Competition in Hungary from 1999, being President of the International Jury in 2005 and 2007. The International Cartographic Association awarded him with the Diploma for Outstandings Services to ICA in 2015. At present, he is Vice-Chair of the ICA Commission on Cartography and Children.