There is a great deal that happens between when authors research and write on topics for the History of Cartography Project and when their work can be published as part of a comprehensive, accurate, richly illustrated, and useful volume in the History of Cartography series. Below, read a four-step summary of the journey taken by Volume Five as a global history of cartography through the long nineteenth century. Find related articles at 2024 Outreach Extras.
Please consider contributing your support to the international effort that is the History of Cartography Project – click “Make A Gift” at right to donate online!
Editorial Preparation: COMPLETE Spring 2025
Volume 5 Research Editor Lindsey Buscher has coordinated the submission and comprehensive editing of 410 encyclopedic entries by 197 authors in 7 languages (translated into English), totaling over one million words! Our staff has thoroughly checked each of these entries, meticulously verifying all facts (names, dates, places, etc.) and citations (4,778 sources are cited throughout the volume), and making each entry consistent with the other volumes of The History of Cartography. After careful edits by Managing Editor Jude Leimer and Volume 5 Editor Roger J. P. Kain, Buscher organized the entries for return to their authors for their review and approval; the process has required facilitating open communication between authors and project staff. In addition to the text, 92% of the volume’s entries illustrate printed and manuscript maps, advertisements, photographs, drawings, and paintings from the nineteenth century. Volume 5 has 1,054 illustrations in all, and our staff has acquired high-resolution digital images for each, resized them for final printing, and obtained all necessary permissions for publication.
Manuscript Submission: JULY 2025!
Delivering the manuscript as one complete package, including all content and high-resolution images with permissions to reproduce them, allows the University of Chicago Press to smoothly organize and launch production. Buscher and Volume 5 Pre-Press Editor Tania Kolarik are responsible for the major task of formatting and organizing the finalized entry files A to Z and text for the image captions, and they are compiling essential lists (the title page, table of contents, illustrations, editors and contributors, and supporters). Kain, Leimer, and Project Director Matthew Edney are writing and preparing further elements of the volume’s front and back matter, and Kolarik is organizing the high-resolution image files and their corresponding permission documents into the digital format required by the Press. The 1,054 illustrations must be numbered as they will appear sequentially within the volume. Once all files have been compiled and have undergone another review by both Kain and Leimer they are uploaded online to the Press. A massive accomplishment!
Volume Production: “AT PRESS” University of Chicago Press with review by our editors
Once the manuscript is submitted to the Press, History of Cartography Project staff will still be hard at work. The Press will send our staff professionally copyedited text, a process which ensures consistency throughout the volume, in about six consecutive batches. These will be reviewed by Kain, Leimer, and Buscher, and their changes will be returned to the Press, incorporated. Project staff will receive typeset “galley pages” for review and correction, ensuring that all copyedits were properly made; Kain will check printed image proofs for color accuracy; and our staff will review page proofs that integrate the images, captions, and galleys into the pages that will be published in Volume 5. The Project will retain a professional indexer, who will work with the page proofs as they become available. To ensure accuracy and consistency our staff will carefully read through the entire volume multiple times, from copyediting through final page proofs. This multi-step process allows the Press to turn our carefully curated and edited content into a polished volume of The History of Cartography.
Publication: VOLUME 5 PUBLICATION
The University of Chicago Press anticipates publication in 2027, and the wait will be worth it! Cartography in the Nineteenth Century covers a period of evolving ideas and technology. It explores the science, innovation, art, technology, and craft of modern cartography. Volume 5 will be an authoritative resource for academic researchers, a ready reference for map enthusiasts, and a wealth of insight and information for every user. The volume is organized as an interpretive encyclopedia, with entries organized alphabetically by term, as you would expect, but there are many other ways to approach its 1,900 pages: use the table of contents, the concept groups, or the comprehensive index. You can also simply browse the pages, stop at a map or topic that captures your interest, and then dig in. Volume 5 will be available in print and ebook formats and will become available online three years later. It’s a long road to publication, but you can look forward to balanced, insightful, and definitive coverage in an elegant (though massive!) two-part book featuring beautiful full-color illustrations throughout.