Imagine a map of the USSR, all riddled with concentration camps - with locations and compelling extracts from documents of "original Soviet documents and written statements from former prisoners." Or a map where people are drawn like flies caught by spiders. They are all there, in fact, in a stunning collection of "persuasive" cartography: maps designed primarily to influence opinions or beliefs - rather than convey geographic information.
The collection reflects a variety of intrusive instruments: allegorical, satirical and narrative; unusual use of forecasts, color, graphics and text; and willful deception.
The collection also covers a wide range of topics - art came to the aid of ideology, when it was necessary to hang people on their ears: religious, political, military, commercial, moral and social themes.
Here, this is one of the finest collections of this "convincing" cartography - the Cornell University Library Collection from the 15th century to the present - over 300 high resolution digitized maps.
This phenomenon can be called cartographic propaganda, because we believe in maps and think that they carry a true idea of the world. However, any map is in some sense subjective: the choice of text, color, and perspective.
Promotional video:
Consider our standard world maps, where a three-dimensional planet is depicted as flat.
Some size distortion dates back to the 16th century in the projection of the work of Gerard Mercator (I wrote about this earlier). For example, Africa is smaller than Greenland, when in fact it is about 14 times larger than Greenland.
Currently, the maps of the United States are colored red and blue and influence the understanding of the current presidential campaign.
Many of them are political, for example, maps from Japan in 1904, where Russia is depicted as an octopus, capturing neighboring countries with its tentacles.
They are often more scenic than purely cartographic ones, for example, a map from L'Eclipse shows France as a web and its citizens, as trapped flies surrounded by spiders representing Napoleon III, the Third Republic, Bismarck and the Royalists.
Time Magazine January 2, 1950
In this map, the dark red USSR fills the space, while the USA is barely visible above the horizon. A fat Soviet hammer and sickle dominates the tiny American flag. And the accordion of the corrugated beams of the USSR expansion in Eastern Europe and Asia increases the effect.
This map is typical of many anti-communist maps that appeared in all national news magazines by 1950. They highlighted the dangerous proximity of the Soviet Union and the United States … This alarmist card helped rally the American people to support costly international anti-communist programs such as the Truman Doctrines and the Marshall Plan. (Stone 2007, 5).
R. M. Chapin created a number of Cold War maps for Time magazine.
The map aims to show the various concentration camp systems that cover half of the territory of the Soviet Union. The text on the right side of the map explains the organization of the camps and says that everything is taken from "original Soviet documents and written statements from former prisoners."
She explains that there are still additional camps. At the top of the map are photographs of "Soviet documents from the camp authorities." Below the map is information about specific industries and activities of individual camps.
The map was produced by "two Polish military men, Sylvester Mora and Pierre Zwierniak". 1945
Creepy German propaganda leaflet aimed at Allied forces at the end of the battle in May 1944
A visual display of the UN for schools. The map is largely updated by MacDonald Gill, the original was issued in 1945. The map contains the names of all 55 UN member states at the end of 1946, with a blank space in the center to add "new member states."
The collection at the Cornell University Library is here.
