About
MARK MONMONIER is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Before retiring in May 2021, he taught courses on map design and environmental cartography. Monmonier has authored more than 20 books, including Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (1999); Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy (2002); Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection (2004); Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (2008); No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control (2010); Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows (2012); Adventures in Academic Cartography: A Memoir (2016); Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History (2017); Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (2019); and Clock and Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a “Real Address” (2022).
An early invention now known as the Monmonier Algorithm is an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics. His research in the 1970s and 1980s demonstrated the potential of optimization methods for improving map design, and in the 1990s he turned to the political, rhetorical, and social impacts of maps and geospatial technology and to the history of cartography. Monmonier has been editor of The American Cartographer and president of the American Cartographic Association, and he has published numerous papers on map design, automated map analysis, cartographic generalization, the history of cartography, statistical graphics, and mass communications. He has served on advisory panels for the National Research Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and he was editor of Cartography in the Twentieth Century, published in April 2015 by the University of Chicago Press as Volume Six of the History of Cartography series.
Monmonier enjoys writing for general audiences. His How to Lie with Maps (a revised, third edition was released in 2018) promotes a broad appreciation of cartography’s uses and limitations, and has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. For diverse contributions to cartography, he was awarded the American Geographical Society’s O. M. Miller Medal in 2001, the Pennsylvania State University’s Charles L. Hosler Alumni Scholar Medal in 2007, and the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal in 2009. In November 2016 he was inducted into the URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems) GIS Hall of Fame, and in March 2023, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Geographers.
Featured Work
Electricity and Maps: Before Computers, There Were Currents and Coils
Electricity and Maps examines the often-overlooked roles in mapmaking of long-distance telegraph lines and electric power. By focusing on the era before the digital computer and the geographic information system (GIS), the book offers a broad, surprisingly intriguing take on the history of modern cartography and the map’s responsibilities in emergency management. Development of the electromagnetic relay inspired the systematic collection of atmospheric observations across vast regions—data essential for compiling the maps used to track storms and warn of extreme weather. Electric current also supported the systematic measurement of longitude and the drafting and labeling of hand-drawn maps. And when electronic fire and police-alarm networks were initiated in the nineteenth century, maps had fundamental roles in planning coverage, orchestrating disaster response, and setting insurance rates. Over sixty facsimile illustrations and explanatory graphics enrich the discussion of how the electric power used in creating most maps is as important as the persuasive power of a few maps.
