by ©2024 Sarah Becker

The Greek prefix geo- is defined as “of or relating to the earth” including geography, geopolitics, geology, geochronology and mapping. November’s National Geography Awareness Week [18-24] is dedicated to learning. GAW’s goal: “to raise awareness about the significance of geography, environmental issues, and spatial understanding.”

“Education is one of Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz’s top priorities,” the Minnesota Reformer revealed. A former geography teacher, football coach and member of the United States Congress, he “really, really likes maps.”

“We need to find the first person who put that red-blue map up and [castigate] them,” Governor Walz [D-MN] said in 2023. It not only divided the country, it did not show the nuance that a Geographic Information System [GIS] shows.”

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a “computer system for capturing, storing, querying, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data, i.e., data that is associated with a particular location.” The popular Global Positioning System [GPS] is “a multi-use, space-based, radio-navigation system owned by the U.S. Government.”

To the Governor’s point, “a geographically illiterate member of the U.S. Congress is a very scary proposition.”

Mapping as defined by the Oxford American Desk Dictionary.  [1] “Flat representation of the earth’s surface, or part of it.” The first accurate maps of the Virginia colony were completed by Thomas Jefferson’s father, surveyor Peter Jefferson in 1751. [2] “an operation that associates each element of a given set (the domain) with one or more elements of a second set (the range).”

“Most are familiar with George Washington’s role as the leader of America’s Continental Army, also his role as the first President of the United States,” the Library of Congress said, “but many may be unaware of Washington’s lifelong association with geography and cartography. Beginning with his early career as a surveyor…Washington relied on and benefitted from his knowledge of maps.”

“The want of accurate Maps of the Country which has hitherto been the Scene of War, has been of great dis-advantage to me,” Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army George Washington wrote in 1777. “I have in vain endeavored to procure them, and have been obliged to make shift, with such Sketches as I could trace out from my own Observations and that of Gentlemen around me.”

“I really think,” Washington continued, “if Gentlemen of known Character & probity could be employed in making Maps (from actual Survey) of the Roads—The Rivers and Bridges and Fords over them—the Mountains and passes thro’ them—it would be of the greatest Advantage.”

On July 10, 1790, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to locate the permanent seat of the federal government “in a district of territory not exceeding ten miles square.” The location was left to President Washington [1789-1797] to decide.

“Whereas by a proclamation dated January 24, 1791, & in pursuance of certain acts of the States of Maryland, & Virginia, & of the U.S. Congress…certain lines of experiment were directed to be run,” Washington wrote.

“[T]he whole of the said territory [the federal district] shall be located & included within the four lines following:” Washington affirmed, “Beginning at Jones’s point, being the upper cape of Hunting creek in Virginia & at an angle in the outset of 45. degrees West of North: & running in a direct line ten miles for the first line: then beginning again at the same Jones’s point, and running another direct line at a right angle with the first across the Potomac, ten miles for the second line: then from the terminations of the said first & second lines, running two other direct lines of ten miles each, the one crossing the Eastern branch aforesaid, & the other the Potomac, & meeting each other in a point.”

Now here we Alexandrians are, centuries later, waiting to cast our November 5, 2024, votes for the 47^th U.S. president.

William Maclure [1763-1840]—the father of American geology and the man for whom Yosemite National Park’s Maclure Glacier is named—was a map-maker [1808-1809]; surveyor, scientist and educational reformer; an elected member of the American Philosophical Society [1799] and the first President of the American Geological Society [1819].

Thomas Jefferson described Maclure as “an honest man; good humored, accommodating and sober.” His groundbreaking, hand-colored, geological map of the eastern United States, Observations on the Geology of the United States was completed in 1809 the last year of Jefferson’s presidency. It was the country’s first!

The suffix –ology, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  “A branch of knowledge, science.”

“I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy of your Geology of the US,” Jefferson wrote Maclure in 1817. “I have read it with as much pleasure as I could expect to receive from such writings in a branch of science with which I am so little familiar.”

“[Y]ou have wisely confined yourself to the truly useful part of this science,” Jefferson continued, “the relative positions of the different kinds of rocks, stones, ores & other minerals, and your researches into these give us valuable information as to the treasures of our country & where to search for them.”

In 1825 Jefferson begged Maclure to share his discoveries with the newly-created University of Virginia.  He donated “mineral and geological articles” from his collection.

In 2016 Governor Terry McAuliffe [D-VA] proudly announced the release of The Geology of Virginia’s 18^th installment, the first comprehensive review of Virginia Geology in more than 100 years. Said McAuliffe: “Every Virginian should be proud of the unique geologic diversity found within the Commonwealth…[It] is one of the best places to study this topic in the world.”

Geologists study Earth’s origin: its structure and history. Geographers explore Earth’s surface: the earth’s atmosphere; human activity as it affects and is affected by climate, including the distribution of populations and resources—land use and industries.

As we celebrate National Geography Awareness Week I think of my 18 year-old nephew T. He earned his drone license at age 15. Geographers increasingly rely on drones: drone-based photogrammetry when mapping locations. The people and objects within, and the distances between.

“The ability to use what I knew about mapping…to convey complex issues and affect change amongst people is really important,” Governor Walz said in August 2024. “The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when maps of case counts and geographic spread were a ubiquitous part of newscasts and policy discussions, underscores this point.”

“Everything is related to everything else,” geographer and cartographer Waldo Tobler thought. If Tobler’s Law of Geography fails to impress you, National Geographic Maps claims to “make the world’s best wall maps, recreation maps, travel maps, atlases and globes to explore and understand the world.”

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service claims summer 2024 was the hottest in Earth’s recorded history. Climate change causes temperatures to rise; glaciers—like the Maclure Glacier—to melt; plant and animal geographic ranges to shift, and humans to relocate.

Ninety percent of Earth’s human population lives in the Northern Hemisphere. To what extent are humans responsible for the changing climate—for storms like hurricanes Helene and Milton? Are maps précises of history?

Rockin’ on, children ages 6-10 may enjoy Enrico Lavagno’s book Maps of the World: An Illustrated Children’s Atlas of Adventure, Culture and Discovery; ages 8-12 Sylvia A. Johnson’s Mapping the World.

The world’s oldest known map, Babylon’s Imago Mundi was created 2600-2900 years ago. Babylon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located 55 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.

About the Author: Sarah Becker started writing for The Economist while a graduate student in England. Similar publications followed. She joined the Crier in 1996 while serving on the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association Board. Her interest in antiquities began as a World Bank hire, with Indonesia’s need to generate hard currency. Balinese history, i.e. tourism provided the means. The New York Times describes Becker’s book, Off Your Duffs & Up the Assets, as “a blueprint for thousands of nonprofit managers.” A former museum director, SLAM’s saving grace Sarah received Alexandria’s Salute to Women Award in 2007. Email: abitofhistory53@gmail.com