The Atlas of Oregon (second edition) by William Loy, Stuart Allen, Aileen R.Buckley, and James E. Meacham is superb, ranking among the very best atlases ever. It has intense 3-dimensional resolution in exquisitely detailed maps (in the elegant style of Stuart Allen's Raven maps). The statistical displays are detailed, clear, often fascinating, and up-to-date. And the entire atlas is beautifully designed and produced.

I include The Atlas of Oregon along with Atlas of Early American History by Lester J.Cappon, Barbara Bartz Petchenik, and John Hamilton Long (Princeton 1976) among my very favorite atlases.

Anyone interested in the state of the art in information design should buy this book ($40 paperback when discounted, $100 clothbound).I bought The Atlas of Oregon from, of course, Powell's Books http://www.powells.com/

-- Edward Tufte, January 2, 2002

A fabulous atlas is the 3 vol. Historical Atlas of Canada, edited by Geoffrey J. Matthews and R. Cole Harris.

-- Martin Gamache (email), March 27, 2002

I'll take a look at it. How could the publisher, the University of Toronto Press, let these 3 volumes go out of print?!

-- Edward Tufte, March 27, 2002

Canadians like Americans have no interest in Geography... but no seriously what likely happened is that once all the map libraries in Canada , and the rest of the world had aquired them there was no real market for it so they let it go out of print. It is still easy to find it used with ABE or Bookfinder.

-- Martin Gamache (email), April 3, 2002

There may or may not be a connection between the Oregon atlas, but seem to recall that Raven maps (www.ravenmaps.com) is based there. From an informed amateur's perspective, the Raven maps I've seen embody some extraordinary cartographic work. Well worth a look.

-- Matthew Dunn (email), April 6, 2003

As my text above notes, the talented Stuart Allen is at Raven maps and is also co-author of the Atlas of Oregon, 2nd edition.

-- Edward Tufte, April 6, 2003

The CD version of the Atlas of Oregon 2nd edition is also superb. It was published in a limited run and has not been (I'm told by one of the authors that it will not be)reissued. If you can get a copy, grab it. The electronic Atlas is not just digital images of the Atlas maps and text. It was completely redesigned for digital presentation and viewing on a computer screen. The table of contents makes the digital chapters elegantly accessible. Many maps were redesigned to enable readers to explore them with digital tools. It is particularly good at showing change over time.

That should be another string for discussion here -- how can we develop new, more effective ways to show geographical change over time?

-- Anne Knowles (email), April 7, 2007