An Atlas of Geographical Wonders

This is the first book to catalog comparative maps and tableaux that visualize the heights and lengths of the world's mountains and rivers. Produced predominantly in the nineteenth century, these beautifully rendered maps emerged out of the tide of exploration and scientific developments in measuring techniques. Beginning with the work of explorer Alexander von Humboldt, these historic drawings reveal a world of artistic and imaginative difference. Many of them give way—and with visible joy—to the power of fantasy in a mesmerizing array of realistic and imaginary forms. Most of the maps are from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection at Stanford University.

Gilles Palsky is a professor of geography at the University of Paris. He has published a history of statistical cartography of the nineteenth century.

Editorial Reviews

The Wall Street Journal

An Atlas of Geographical Wonders: From Mountaintops to Riverbeds catalogs the maps, prints and tableaux that emerged from the work of 19th-century explorers. The images, most of them from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection at Stanford University, display the era's advances in scientific measuring techniques. At the same time, they also show the artists' pleasure—and sometimes bursts of fantasy—in rendering and imagining the world's mountains and rivers.

The Inquisitive Biologist (UK)

An Atlas of Geographical Wonders is a feast for the eyes, using its layout to good effect to show off the wonderfully reproduced images.

Natural History

The 156 eye-catching tableaux reproduced in this atlas are fascinating variations on a single theme, blending scientific accuracy and graphic inventiveness in fantasy landscapes that convey overarching geographic truths.

The New York Times

Part history, part geography, AN ATLAS OF GEOGRAPHICAL WONDERS: From Mountaintops to Riverbeds illuminates the world of famous 19th-century expeditions. The authors—Jean-Christophe Bailly, Jean-Marc Besse, Philippe Grand and Gilles Palsky—have amassed drawings, maps, graphs and tableaus that trace the adventures of various explorers and show how the science of measuring altitude developed.