The President’s Globe [pictures]

One of the things I got wrong in my 2010 book Mapping was the claim that the University of Georgia has a President’s globe in the Geography Department.

I said this because A) Arthur Robinson, who made the globes, said he thought there was one at UGA, and B) there is actually is a humungous globe in the UGA lobby.

However, it’s not a “President’s Globe” which was a 50″ globe made by the OSS during WWII that was given to President Roosevelt, after someone had seen a large globe owned by Stalin and thought that the US ought to have a big globe too.

Several globes were made in the end and reputedly given to Churchill, some reputedly ended up in a Wisconsin high school and so on. (Until I have eye-witness reports of these I’m pulling a “Glomar response” and will neither confirm nor deny them.)

Anyway, a restored President’s Globe is at the AGSL and when I was there I took a few pictures so you can see for yourself.

After the globe was restored in the mid-1990s, Robinson gave a talk at the AGSL about the history of the globe, which is available on VHS at the library (however, AGSL said they’d copy it to DVD and perhaps even store it digitally). It’s well worth watching.

(Thanks to Ian Muehlenhaus for the loan of a camera to take these pictures).

OSS Theater Map

As part of their mapping efforts, the OSS produced this jaw-dropping “OSS Theater Map” at the height of World War II. It’s notable for a number of reasons.

You immediately notice the unusual projection of the world. According to the designers the map is a

“Lambert’s conformal conic projection at a scale of 1:1,500,000 with standard parallels at 20 degrees and 60 degrees. The map is so designed that any number of sheets may be mounted together to form a theater of any size. To accomplish this, the projection was modifies in three areas along the Equator.”

In other words, as the inset shows in the bottom left, this map blends together four projections into one. Where they touch, the Equator is a straight line. Furthermore, being a conformal map it shows “any small area in its true shape except those areas of land masses in the bands near the Equator.”

Second, the OSS has derived a scheme for systematizing the entire globe into a coherent grid, as shown in this detail:

Each one of these grid units (eg 1743 for the British Isles in the detail above) was produced as a separate base map, without thematic information. So if you want a map to cover the British Isles, you sent for Map #1743. If you wanted an expanded area, you could join it to map #1619 (“Amsterdam”) to the East where it would fit alongside. The 1 G showed it was map in the first grid to the west of the Prime Meridian, in the G-band north of the Equator. (Unfortunately this meant some duplication of grid/band numbers; so for example “Abidjan” and “Lagos” were both 1 A. However, they had different map numbers: 1672 and 1501).

Here’s an example of one of these grids, #1513 (Brunei). This is dated 1942.

Detail of header showing the date and that it was given to the AGS at the end of the war:

Here’s a detail of the map content showing the area around Brunei:

It appears to show not only hydrography, but also some basic elevation detail, as well as railroads, political divisions and of course places names (in English).

The other notable aspect of the map is this comment at the bottom, which raises a somewhat controversial and sad reflection on the AGS:

The AGS thus discarded all the individual maps that make up this series, much to their shame. The Brunei one shown above is the only one left in their archives. (Why Brunei?)

(These maps are just a sampling of the hundreds of maps I’ve looked at over the past 2 months thanks to a generous Fellowship from the History of Cartography project in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.)

 

The .22 caliber cigarette and other gadgets of the OSS

Couldn’t resist getting this book out, a republication of the rare OSS weapons manual (OSS Special Weapons and Equipment, Spy Devices of WWII, by H. Keith Melton).

Pictures speak louder than words, so herewith:

The .22 caliber cigarette. Careful who you share ciggies with!

Simulated poop smell. Highly offensive.

Cool! A folding motorbike for air drops. I say, invented by the British. Top speed 30mph!

No spy would be caught without a miniature camera.

The famous pen gun.

Exploding coal! Confound your enemies and amuse your friends. Breaks the ice at parties!

Take that! Oof!

What, no suicide pill?

Probably not a problem for Katniss.

For the cryptos…

This is just a small selection. There were actually suicide pills (L-pills). don’t smoke cigarettes? There was also an exploding pipe (Captain Haddock anyone?). Great boy’s own stuff…

 

Complete list of OSS personnel

The National Archives has created a handy pdf of a complete listing of OSS personnel. This is convenient because the ARC records were a little hard to use. The list includes location (box, file) in the NARA stacks that can be used to pull the record.

The listing includes over 23,000 names. Is a relative on the list? How many academics can you spot?

Ohio State Departmental Colloquium

I’ve received a kind invitation from the Ohio State geography department to present to their Colloquium Series this fall. The tentative dates are November 3/4, 2011. No title yet, but it would be appropriate to talk about Arthur Robinson and the OSS, since Robbie was a grad student at OSU when he was inveigled to DC. While there, he went from a map consultant on $10 a day, to Chief of the Map Division of the OSS.

There are some top names who’ve presented  in the past, so I’ll be in great company.

Columbus is about 3 hours drive from Lexington, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Wish there was a nice train though!

Thanks to Mat Coleman and the department for thinking of me.

Talk at Florida State

Just back from giving a talk at Florida State, where I gave an early version of the talk I hope to give in Paris at the International Cartographic Association (ICA). The topic was the OSS as America’s first spy agency, and the role of academics–especially cartographers and geographers–within the agency and the post-war legacy on the discipline. This was the first time I’ve presented this material and I think it went well. There were a number of questions afterwards, and the conversation moved into the hallway after we left the room–a good sign.

One grad student contested my reference to the Peters projection, not so much what I said, but Peters’ own claims that the Mercator is a racist map. I think this is still a fairly common reaction, indicating that many people don’t see (or problematise) a connection between geographical knowledges and their socio-political effects.

I stayed with Phil Steinberg while there and we had some interesting chats, including the recent William Cronon controversy. Actually what’s happening with Cronon is a good example of the connection I mention above between knowledge and power.