Historical Atlas of Washington by James W. Scott and Roland L. De Lorme (review)

Abstract

Historical Atlas ofWashington James W. Scott and Roland L. De Lorme. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. Reviewed by Eugene J. Turner Professor, Department ofGeography California State University, Northridge Northridge, CA 91330 ItWASWITHSOMEEXPECTATIONthatIopenedtheHistoricalAtlas ofWashington,becausewhenIwas a graduate studentincartography at the University ofWashington the possibility ofdoing such a work was an occasional topic of conversation. However, other demands and the realities of the time, effort, and materials required to prepare such a work precluded that possibility. Anyone who creates an atlas is to be admiredforwillingness to research a wide array oftopics and to oversee aseeminglyendlesslistoftechnicalandgraphic decisions. If either is not handled carefully, the quality of the work will suffer, as it has in some places in the atlas under review. TheHistoricalAtlas ofWashington is one ofa group ofhistorical atlases produced by the University ofOklahoma Press. Very similar indesigntothehistoricalatlases ofMissouriandOklahoma, Scottand De Lorme's atlas displays each topic on two facing pages. When the book is turned, amap always appears atthe top withthree columns of text on the page below, a convenient and readable arrangement. Throughout this book, I found the explanations to be interesting, 139 140ASSOCIATION OF PACMC COAST GEOGRAPHERS informative, and very readable. Perhaps readers will find the coverage ofsome topics too brieforuneven; forexample, there is virtually no mention of historical settlement by various ethnic groups, yet a full-page map is devoted to displaying the few (seventeen) Spanish place names in the state. But on the whole Scott and De Lorme have done an admirablejob ofproviding a succinct historical overview of the geography of the State of Washington. Overonehundredblackandwhitemaps, mostoffull-page size; an occasional table; and a few reproductions ofearly art cover fourteen general topics. These are the physical environment, Indian history, exploration ofthe Pacific Northwest, the Oregon country and Washington Territory, the fur trade, the missionary era, early territorial history, population growth and characteristics, political divisions, placenames, transportation, production, urbanization, and cultural and park resources. A list of references and an index are included. The maps are rather simple and straightforward in appearance and include various locational, flow, and choropleth types. These could have been appropriate for the atlas were it not for a potpourri of problems. A most disappointing defect in the Historical Atlas of Washington isthepoorproductionofthemaps. Thenegatives appear underdeveloped,resultinginfilled-inletterswhichoftenruntogether. At one end of the gray scale, light-screened tints disappear, making mapclasseshardtodistinguish. Atthedarkendofthe grayscale, dark screens appear as a solid black. Under these conditions, some of the type appears fuzzy or disappears against darkbackgrounds. There is little excuse for this type ofproduction, especially by a press which has published eight similar atlases. The production people should have identified these problems before the atlas was printed. Some of the maps, such as the four on population change, even have dirty blotches andspots inthe screens. Icheckedasecondcopyofthis atlas and found it to be of better quality, but the production problems remain evident. Aggravating the poor production is the inclusion of several maps which were not designed to be produced at the page-size ofthe atlas. YEARBOOK · VOLUME 51 · 1989141 A map oflandforms by Erwin Raisz contains many useful locational names that are too small; a reproduction of a map of the Wilke's Expedition borders on illegibility; and several reproductions of city panoramic maps lose much of their detail. Many of the state maps appear to be based on a reduction ofthe 1:500,000 USGS state base map. When reduced to a scale of about 1:2.3 million the linework becomes very fine and complex, so that rivers, boundaries, and coastlines often are not well reproduced. The shaded relief plate whichis includedonmanymapsandwhich shouldaddunderstanding to the nature ofthe geographic distributions, varies in darkness from page to page, but is often too dark and dominates the map. Another relief plate used on maps of the Northwest clutters the pages even more. The reliefplate should have been printed in a different, more transparent color or at least controlled to a very light shade of gray. Readers not familiar with the geography ofWashington will need to scout through the atlas to find the locations of various regions, cities, and counties constantly referred to in the text. A general referencemapinthefrontoftheatlaswouldhavehelpedinthisregard. Amap showing counties is the41stinthe atlas, while otherplaces are identified here...