The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena

Winds, ocean currents, volcanoes and the distribution of animals all find a place in The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena...

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Winds, ocean currents, volcanoes and the distribution of animals all find a place in The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena, an atlas of unusually broad scientific scope. Alexander Keith Johnston compiled it for William Blackwood & Sons of Edinburgh and London, and the sheets here, from 1850 and 1856, cover rainfall, terrestrial magnetism, geology and zoology. Drainage maps divide the Americas, Europe and Asia by watershed rather than frontier, animal plates relate species to latitude and altitude, and sections and diagrams make physical processes visible. The atlas also records Victorian attempts to classify human populations and disease geographically, with the assumptions and limitations of the scholarship of its day.

Winds, ocean currents, volcanoes and the distribution of animals all find a place in The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena, an atlas of unusually broad scientific scope. Alexander Keith Johnston compiled it for William Blackwood & Sons of Edinburgh and London, and the sheets here, from 1850 and 1856, cover rainfall, terrestrial magnetism, geology and zoology. Drainage maps divide the Americas, Europe and Asia by watershed rather than frontier, animal plates relate species to latitude and altitude, and sections and diagrams make physical processes visible. The atlas also records Victorian attempts to classify human populations and disease geographically, with the assumptions and limitations of the scholarship of its day.

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