Atlas of Kentucky ed. by Richard Ulack, Karl Raitz, Gyula Pauer (review)

Abstract

182 So u t h e a s t e r n G e o g r a p h e r Atlas of Kentucky. Richard Ulack, editor-in-chief; Karl Raitz, co-editor; and Gyula Pauer, cartographic editor. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexing­ ton, 1998, xii + 316 pp., maps, tables, graphs, photos, glossary, sources of graphics, list of contributors, index. $39.95 cloth (ISBN 0-8131-2005-5). Patricia Gilmartin Sandwiched between this atlas’s endpaper—a vivid Landsat image showing the Ohio River defining a sinuous border for part of northern Kentucky—and its back endpaper—a pocket containing transparent county-name overlays—is a wealth of information about the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The almost 800 maps and graphs and 200 photographs—all in full color—are augmented by text, but clearly, with an average of about 3.5 graphics per page, it is images rather than words that dominate the Atlas o fKentucky. Five years in the works, the atlas is a handsome volume, bound and jacketed, appropriately, in blue. As a cooperative project led by geographers from the Univer­ sity of Kentucky, it incorporates contributions from several of the state’s other uni­ versities as well as private and public agencies. Thus, each of the book’s 13 chapters has a different author or set of authors, encompassing expertise in a wide range of physical, cultural, historical, and economic geographies. The text has been ably edited to maintain a consistent style, however, so that the changes in authorship are not apparent to the reader. The volume opens with an introductory chapter establishing Kentucky’s place within the broader national and global context and then moves on to chapters describing the state’s natural environment and historical and cultural landscapes. The Commonwealth’s population, its composition, spatial distribution, and demo­ graphic characteristics are detailed in following chapters. The focus then turns to economic activities such as agriculture, manufacturing, mineral and timber indus­ tries, and tourism, as well as transportation and communication resources. Chapters on the state’s political geography and its urban landscapes round out the atlas, which concludes with a section relating to Kentucky in the future. The editors have done an excellent job of indexing the atlas and providing information about data sources and all illustrations. The editors, authors, and cartographers also must be credited for the truly amazing volume of detailed information contained in the atlas. A few examples will give you the idea. There are 13 maps on the topic of Kentucky’s air quality alone. Another set of four maps highlights fishing streams in the state for 14 varieties of Dr. Gilmartin is Professor o f Geography at the University o fSouth Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. V o l . XXX VIII, No. 2 183 fish in four fish families. The locations and names of 134 festivals and shows com­ prise another map and accompanying table. As a final example, the topic of “Income, Poverty, and Welfare” is explored through 14 maps, one table, and two graphs. These graphs are accompanied by text too, of course, but most of the detail is conveyed by the illustrations. Five-class, county-level choropleth maps dominate the thematic cartography, although a variety of other symbolization methods also appear. These include dot maps, proportional symbols, isarithmic maps, pie charts, flow maps, and others. For the most part, color and symbolization methods have been applied appropriately for the data they represent, although it is a bit unusual to see ordinal data represented with a purple-green-yellow color combination rather than a spectral sequence of color (pp. 266-267). And it is sometimes difficult to distinguish among five shades of a single hue on the small-scale choropleth maps. In general, however, the carto­ graphic design is excellent. One of the maps created by cartographic editor Gyula Pauer is worthy of special mention: it is a striking representation of the state’s phys­ iographic regions using layer tints and a shaded relief base map (pp. 6-7). The atlas’s text is well organized and well written; the graphics are attractive and informative. What is almost totally missing is any integration between the text and graphics. Given...