The way cartography was: A snapshot of mapping and map use in 1900

This essay is a broad-brush reconstruction of the state of American cartography in the year 1900. Our goal is a benchmark for assessing change in mapping, mapmaking, and map use during the twentieth century: a largely irreversible change readily labeled "progress" in less methodologically contentious times. By focusing on differences between cartography then and cartography now, we seek to avoid naïve assumptions about rate of change and beneficial impact. Identification of salient differences can, we think, usefully inform efforts to research and synthesize the history of cartography in the twentieth century.