From the Map Vault – Heinrich Berann – National Park Service – Greater Yellowstone
Heinrich Berann is considered the father of the modern panoramic map.
In the 1960s, Heinrich Berann painted a series of posters commissioned by the United States National Park Service. Greater Yellowstone was one of these that was printed by Williams & Heintz.
At Williams & Heintz, the story has it that, the head of publications for the National Park Service, Vincent Gleason, actually went up in a small plane with Berann. They flew around Yellowstone, as Berann made the sketches that became the basis of his painting.
The color separations for printing where made from the actual painting itself, at Mueller Color Plate, in Minneapolis, on a process camera.
The posters are available at the US Government Bookstore.
Matthias Troyer, a grandson of H.C. Berann, maintains a website of Berann’s work.
From the Map Vault – National Geographic Society’s 1930 Map of Florida
Florida Map Printed by Williams & Heintz in 1930 for the National Geographic Society
Williams & Heintz Map Corp. has been printing maps for entrepreneurs, government agencies and map publishers since 1921. We printed this 1930 map of Florida for the National Geographic Society. Back then we did business under the name of Williams & Heintz Co., Lithographers.
Sure was a lot more swamp land then! And no major interstate highways to travel. I am intrigued that the insets all show railroad hubs. Back in the thirties, an employee at Williams & Heintz took a road trip south, to visit with a long lost relative, and was gone for six months!
What would it look like today if the interstate highway systems had not been developed?
Spencer Fleury has an interesting blog post about abandoned rail roads in Florida, and their use.
From The Map Vault of Williams & Heintz Map Corp.- Tectonic Map of Mexico 1961
Tectonic Map of Mexico Printed by Williams & Heintz Map Corp. in 1961
Williams & Heintz Map Corp. printed the Tectonic Map of Mexico in 1961 for the Geological Society of America. The map was compiled by Zoltan de Czerna. The Bathymetry was compiled by Bruce C. Heezen. The preparation of the base map and final drafting was done by David Saldaña. They spent the years from 1956 to 1959 compiling and preparing this map.
After printing, we would inspect each individual sheet. Because even though this is a multi-color map, it was printed on only a two color press, a more common press in the early 1960’s. This required the paper to be fed through the press multiple times. The difficulty was, that if the paper did not feed into the press exactly the same every time, it would result in a misregistration of the image. Since the run lengths of these jobs was rarely more than several hundred we used to run a significant amount of overs and when the job was finished each sheet would be individually inspected to catch the misregistered sheets.
This level of inspection is not possible with runs in the millions, so today it’s a good thing we have six color presses.
For more information on print registration and map colors see:
Mapping the Metrics of Mapping: Putting Africa on the Map
Screen Shot WordPress Top Views by Country
One of the things that I like about the WordPress platform is the statistics that it provides for me to see who is reading my blog. I love stats: if you can measure it, then you can make it better.
Kind of like I like our ISO certifications at Williams & Heintz Map Corp. The processes make us keep track and measure everything:
- We are ISO 9001 certified for “Cartographic Production, Large Form Cartographic Printing and Specialized Map Folding” to provide better product with greater consistency and quality.
- We are ISO14001 certified; we have developed, and maintain an environmental management system to continually improve our environmental performance. The processes and materials that we use to create quality maps and charts are continually monitored to reduce our environmental footprint and to decrease the pollution and waste.
Anyway, about the WordPress stats, I can be pretty obsessive. I am pleased to see that WordPress now has a view by country panel. The best thing about this view is that it is in the form of a map! So far the MapPrinter blog has been viewed by people from 40 different countries. No views from Africa or China yet. How can I fix these big holes in my map?
UPDATE: One week after posting about Africa, tagging and using Africa in the title of the post, I now have views from 5 countries in Africa: Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda! I even received a request for a map printing quote 🙂
Honoring Marie Tharp, Oceanographic Cartographer, for International Women’s Day
Marie Tharp’s Physiographic Diagram of the North Atlantic Ocean
In honor of International Women’s day my post today is about an important woman in map printing history. In fact Marie Tharp (1920-2006) is an important contributor to the studies of, cartography, geography, and oceanography, woman or man.
“Tharp was the first to map the unseen topography of the ocean floor on a global scale. Her observations became crucial to the eventual acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift in the earth sciences. Working with pens, ink and rulers, Tharp drew the underwater details, longitude degree by latitude degree, described by thousands of sonar readings taken by Columbia University researchers and others. Her maps have since become modern scientific and popular icons.” http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/08/tharp.html
Marie Tharp worked with Bruce Heezen at the Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory. They were the co-creators of the first global map of the ocean floor and co-discoverer of the central rift valley that runs through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
“As details of the ocean floor emerged, Tharp noticed a fascinating feature. A well-known mountain range running down the Atlantic, known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, appeared as expected. But as Tharp’s careful drafting made clear, there was also a valley that ran down through the middle of the mountain range. It was a hugely important geophysical feature; this “rift valley” marked a dynamic seam in the crust of the planet, the boundary of huge continent-size plates where new portions of crust rose from the interior of the earth to the surface like a conveyor belt and then, in a geological creep known as “drift,” moved outward in both directions from the midocean ridge.
The idea that vast tracts of the earth’s crust moved across the surface, known as continental drift, was unpopular at the time. Most geophysicists were “fixists” who believed the planet’s surface was static, and Tharp later remarked that a scientist could be fired for being a “drifter” in the 1950s. But she was the first to see the signature of plate tectonics on the surface of the earth, and Heezen was the first of many scientists who rudely dismissed it. “Girl talk,” he said. “It cannot be. It looks too much like continental drift.” It took Tharp the better part of a year to convince him.” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/magazine/31Tharp.t.html?_r=2
Marie Tharp came to Williams and Heintz Map Corp. with her drawings. From her camera copy, we made film negatives. From the film negatives we made the color separations for the land tint and the water tint. From these, we made printing plates. The job printed in three colors.
Williams & Heintz Map Corp can still print your map using film, if you need it. We can still make edits to, proof, and print from film. The man-hours involved in updating a film job can be much less than the thousands of man-hours required digitizing a whole new map. We can even combine digital correction copy with film based layers.
UPDATE: Read more about Marie Tharp in my book review of Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor, by Hali Felt.
A Quick Look at Williams & Heintz Map Corp. in Map Printing History
Bill and Dick Heintz, Past Presidents of Williams & Heintz, in their exhibit booth, at the Annual Meeting of the Geologic Society of America
In 1921, my great grandfather Louis Heintz, came home and announced that he was quitting his job at the US Geological Survey, to start a map printing company with three of his coworkers. He was a stone lithographer. Back then, the market opportunities were in creating tax maps. Cities and municipalities needed maps because they were missing out on revenue, as there were no accurate maps.
In World War II, my Grandfather, William Heintz, was running the company. He learned the importance of good accounting when the war ended. After printing like mad, he had made enough money to buy a new press. His contemporaries however, had made enough money to buy whole new printing plants. So he brought in an outside accountant to go over his books. Upon the arrival of the accountant, the employee who had been quoting prices during the war, got up and left. As it turned out, the employee thought that it was unpatriotic to profit from the war effort. So Williams and Heintz worked tirelessly for the government during World War II printing maps of Europe, the Pacific, charts for pilots on sized linen. We printed them at cost.
By the fifties, when my father, Richard Heintz, started working at Williams and Heintz, we specialized in making and printing geologic maps. We created with the Geo-color Guide which established a library of tints and colors for geologic maps. This concept was later adopted by the US Geologic Survey.
Today at Williams and Heintz Map Corp., we still specialize in printing large format cartographic work. The substrates have changed, we print a lot of maps on plastic, which is very durable. The technology has advanced and the processes are better for the environment. But the maps are unique. Printed maps are still here because they give you the big picture. When used in conjunction with GPS and mobile apps, they make for an unbeatable combination.
Without maps,you may get you where you want to go but you wont know where you are.
Advertisement for Williams & Heintz Map Corp in the GEOTIMES, 1964 and 1971
Paper Charts vs. Electronic Devices-True Story
Williams & Heintz Cruising Guide at the Richmond Boat Show
Got a story for you. My sister, Robin, goes to boat shows to sell our Williams & Heintz Cruising Guides, nautical chartbooks of Maryland and Virginia waterways. This last week she was in Richmond. Her booth was right next to a vendor of electronic navigation equipment. At the end of the show, he bought a case of chartbooks, to give to his customers, who purchase expensive electronic navigation systems for their boats. He wants them to have them for planning and as a backup.
Just goes to show that electronic devices are not replacing printed products, but they complement each other, and make each more effective.
Maps and QR Codes – “Look! They’re putting those on girls now!”
You can scan this code with your smart phone to learn about the Williams & Heintz Cruising Guides, chartbooks of the waters of Maryland and Virginia.
“Look! They’re putting those on girls now!” This quote is just one of the entertaining reactions we got when I made sweatshirts, with the QR Code® (Quick Response, 2D Codes). I made them to wear at the boat shows, where we sell our chartbooks. The QR Code, on the back of the shirt links to the chartbook website. The QR codes work well as a conversation starter on my daughter’s sweatshirt, and they put the link directly onto the phone of our customers.
As a printer, I see a lot of information about the QR Code, as I search for new ideas to add value to map printing. And I see so many ways to use them. Now, I realize that most people are not specifically going out to buy a smart phone for the QR Code reader, but as a printer, this was the tipping point that gave it value to me. QR codes are a link from print on paper to the digital world. Scan the code to get more information. It is easy to download the app, if your phone doesn’t have one. My kids get new apps all the time, what’s the big deal?
I know that we printers, publishers, and marketers are jumping on this opportunity to add value to our printed piece, and sometimes are putting them all over the place where they don’t make sense, like the last few seconds of a TV commercial, or a billboard that you are speeding by. (I want to put one on a bumper sticker that takes you to “If you can scan this, you are too close”)
But QR Codes on sweatshirts have also made me the cool and popular mom with my teenagers and their friends.
Using the QR Code, on shirts and in show displays, has worked out well because it is still new to many consumers. People stopped to ask about the codes and try out the new technology on their new phones.
Maps are a great place for QR Codes. QR Codes on maps have got to be, hands down, one of the best uses. As I have said before, a map is not just to get someone from one place to another. That information is readily available in numerous formats and media. Maps communicate lots of information about the location being mapped. QR Codes quickly and easily connect you to more information.
Here are a few examples of maps with useful QR Codes we have printed:
The Pennsylvania Tourism & Transportation Map uses QR Codes to highlight places to go and things to see on the map.
The Ohio Scenic Rivers Map uses a QR Code to direct people to the donation page.
The West Virginia Official Highway Map has a QR Code that links to the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
Here are a few more blogs about QR Codes that I like.
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/09/this-man-wants-to-kill-qr-codes-can-he-do-it/
http://lynnmeloche.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/a-checkerboard-on-lsd-the-qr-code/
QR Code ® is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED
Printing Transportation Maps and Making Them Available to the Public Boosts Tourism Dollars
The Maryland Office of Tourism just published this info graphic on the importance of tourism in Maryland.
For every $1 Maryland invested in tourism funding last year, $43 in state sales tax was generated.
Tourism creates jobs. 1 out of 17 jobs in Maryland is a tourism job – 130,000 Marylanders directly work in tourism.
97% of tourism businesses in Maryland are small businesses.
Visitors to Maryland spent $13.1 billion on travel expenses in 2010.
When you look at all the media options, printed tourist information is an important, and low cost, part of the money invested in tourism funding.
The most effective form, of printed material for tourists, is a map. People want maps, as opposed to just a travel magazine. This dynamic was most observable when New York State incorporated their map into their travel magazine as a tear out piece. At the rest stops they ended up with dumpsters full of magazines, with the maps removed.
The primary job of the transportation map is no longer just to get someone from point A to point B. That information is readily available in numerous formats and media. The real job of the transportation map is now to get people to stop in between point A and B and spend a few bucks.
When the tourist information is made part of a city, county, or state transportation map, then it will end up in the hands of potential consumers.
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