Creating an Ethnographic Atlas of European Russia as Reflected in Peter von Köppen’s Correspondence with the Academy of Sciences

In the mid-nineteenth century, the development of ethnographic cartography was mostly driven by issues related to the classification and territorial distribution of ethnic groups. However, in the course of this work, cartographers, ethnographers, and statisticians faced economic and material challenges, which have often been overlooked in the scholarship. This article examines the ‘mapping processes’ (М. Edney) of the 1840s through an analysis of correspondence between Peter von Köppen and the Imperial St Petersburg Academy of Sciences about the preparation of the Ethnographic Atlas of European Russia (1848), one of the first ethnographic maps published in the Russian Empire. These sources held in the St Petersburg branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences are published here for the first time and provide detailed information about the circumstances behind the preparation of the atlas. The academy only published a short summary of these discussions, which omitted key financial and methodological details. The correspondence thus provides an alternative perspective on the history of cartography, revealing the difficulties of everyday scientific activity behind the scenes. The exchange vividly describes the relationship between the Academy of Sciences and the Russian Geographical Society during its early years, Köppen’s struggle to finance his various cartographic projects, and the material processes of producing an ethnographic map. The article focuses on how Köppen balanced his scientific vision with his limited material and practical circumstances and the goals of the various scientific organisations he was involved in.

Preface

Since its massive expansion under Sultans Selim I (1512–20) and Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66), the Ottoman Empire extended from the Algerian shores to Georgia in the Caucasus and from Hungary in the heart of Europe to Yemen on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Albeit in a long decline thereafter, the core of this multi-cultural conglomerate survived into the early twentieth century before it finally disintegrated during and right after the First World War. Throughout these five centuries, the Ottomans deeply influenced these heterogeneous countries, creating or enabling a rich and multi-faceted cartographic heritage within its realms and the gradually breaking away regions in Europe, Asia, and Africa.For many Ottoman (era) cartography is synonymous with navigator and geographer Ahmed Muhyiddin Piri (1465–1553), better known as Piri Reis and the interactions between early modern Ottoman mapmakers and their European colleagues. The International Cartographic Association’s Commission on the History of Cartography, however, believes that the Empire’s later periods, especially the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hitherto for many themes and regions has not received the warranted attention.Therefore, the Commission in 2019 invited abstracts for its 8th International Symposium on “Mapping the Ottoman Realm: Travelers, Cartographers, and Archaeologists”, to be held on April 21–23, 2020 in Istanbul, under its old name Constantinople until 1922 the capital of the Ottoman Empire. As the conference title (see banner above) and the Call for Papers indicated, the symposium encouraged submissions not only on regional topographic mapping by locals and foreigners, but also and – at least to my knowledge – for the first time on the mapping of archaeological sites, landscapes, and excavations. Eventually, a total of 38 presentations passed a rigorous vetting. When presenters and delegates were eagerly looking forward to stimulating exchanges at the conference and technical visits, the sudden spread of Covid-19 forced to call off the symposium just five weeks before the opening reception. At the time of going to press it is planned to catch up on the postponed symposium by a workshop linked to the 30th International Cartographic Conference in Florence (Italy) in December 2021 - the pandemic permitting!As it became evident that the staggered waves of the pandemic would not allow a timely rescheduling of the symposium, the decision was taken to maintain as much as possible the momentum and call upon the authors to develop their presentations into full papers. Eventually, eleven author (teams) submitted fully developed papers which are contained in this book. Although the scope of the papers by time and region stretches from sixteenth century Hungary to twenty-first century archaeology of Ottoman Jaffa, you will notice that in many papers some of the content links to the content in at least one other paper, convincingly making clear the interconnectedness of interdisciplinary cartographic research especially into nineteenth and twentieth centuries of Ottoman (era / regions) cartography.Although the pandemic prevented the 8th International Symposium on the History of Cartography from personally congregating on the Bosporus, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Department, and there our local organizing partner Prof. Dr. Andreas Schachner, archaeologist and head of the department’s library, for setting up what would have been a memorable conference.Further, I want to thank the reviewers and the authors for going through the production process of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography’s first venture into Open Access publication. We hope that you enjoy reading the papers, will find them useful in the pursuit of your own research, and – last but not least – consider joining yourself the Commission’s future workshops or conferences.Please stay updated by either joining us or regularly checking our website: https://history.icaci.org/

Understanding the Current Complexities of Indigenous Land Tenure and Toponymy: The Importance of Historical Indigenous Cartography with Indigenous Contributions to Euro/American/Canadian Cartography

In recent years, many libraries and archives have started digitizing their collections thus making maps by Indigenous peoples more easily available for scholars to study. While a number of these maps were discussed by G. Malcolm Lewis in the History of Cartography series (volume 2, book 3, Chapter 4: 1984), more have since been found and disseminated. These maps are critical in understanding the historic and current land tenure of Indigenous groups. Further, Indigenous claims to land can be seen in their connections via toponymy. European concepts of territory and political boundaries did not coincide with First Nation/American Indian views resulting in the mistaken view that Natives did not have formal concepts of their territories. Further, Tribes/First Nations with cross-border territory have special jurisdictional problems. This paper will illustrate how many Native residents were very spatially cognizant of their own lands, as well as neighboring nations’ lands, overlaps between groups, hunting territories, populations, and trade networks. Currently, the Sinixt First Nation provides a perfect example of how an Aboriginal people are inputting and using a GIS representation of their territory with proper toponymy and use areas.

Massimo Quaini e il CISGE

Among the geographical associations the Italian Centre for Historical and Geographical Studies (CISGE) was the one with which Massimo Quaini maintained a stronger relationship. In addition to the sharing of the study fields, Quaini was also linked to CISGE by the close and inseparable link between geography and history, the combination of concrete research and theoretical reflection, the plurality of approaches, the continuous dialectic and the marked interdisciplinarity. Elements that have always characterized the Centre since its foundation, becoming concrete in meetings, seminars, conferences, research groups, national and international projects and in numerous publications. Through a careful analysis of Quaini’s writings contained in the proceedings, the collections of essays and the journal Geostorie (which since 2000 replaced the Notiziario del CISGE) – a long and uninterrupted series from 1992 to 2017 – the contribution aims at highlighting the original, critical and stimulating contribution offered by Massimo to the four fundamental study streams of CISGE: historical geography, history of cartography, history of geographical thought, history of travels and of explorations.