The International Conferences on the History of Cartography

A Short History and a Bibliography of Papers

Compiled by Douglas W. Sims and adapted for the WWW by Peter van der Krogt

Introduction

A Short History of the ICHC by Douglas W. Sims

This symposium had not been among those originally listed in the first circular for the congress,² although there had been a sub-section "History of Cartography" under the main congress section "Cartography." For various reasons, there occurred several changes in the number and arrangement of sections and symposia of the congress, and in the second circular,³ which was compiled in late 1962 and distributed in May 1963, the history symposium was added, while the historical sub-section under "Cartography" had been retained as well. Not long after, this redundancy was noticed, as were some other irregularities in the program, and still a third, and final, circular was sent around, in which the symposium was retained, but the old sub-section was finally dropped.
Who was the originator of the first ICHC? The rather dry facts in the preceding paragraph would be of little interest, except for the light they help throw on this interesting question. It is often stated that the first conference was organized by Raleigh Ashlin (Peter) Skelton and Gerald Roe Crone: "A Symposium on the History of Cartography, directed by Mr. G. R. Crone and Mr. R. A. Skelton, was held at the Royal Geographical Society on 17-18 July 1964)."⁴ This is correct, and a better collaboration could hardly have been found, for Skelton, Superintendent of the Map Room of the then British Museum, and Crone, Librarian and Map Curator of the Royal Geographical Society, had long worked closely together, on the staff of the Hakluyt Society since Skelton's appointment in 1946, as the British representatives to the IGU's Commission for Early Maps since 1949, and as members of the editorial staff of Imago Mundi since 1951. Nevertheless, it is always, if I may use such a phrase, historiographically most satisfying if one can narrow one's originator down to a single person. Indeed, in the Skelton biography in the Geographical Review 62 (1972), at p. 134, it is stated that: "For this occasion [the 20th IGC] Skelton . . . was convener of the symposium on the History of Cartography, which preceded the congress. This meeting was so successful that a second, also under his leadership, was held at the Royal Geographical Society in 1967. This was the origin of the International Conferences on the History of Cartography." Again, in a notice on the origin of the congresses in Imago Mundi 40 (1988), p. 56, it is said that the symposium was organized by Skelton "with the collaboration of G. R. Crone." But Helen Wallis, on p. 82 of her biography of Crone in Imago Mundi 37 (1985), asserts: "It was at Crone's invitation that some fifty participants at the XXth International Geographical Congress held in London in 1964 met on 17 July at the Royal Geographical Society for a Symposium on the History of Cartography," although she adds that it was "organized jointly by Crone and his long term friend and colleague R. A. Skelton." The well-known Swiss historian of cartography, Franz Grenacher, part of the 3-member main editorial committee of Imago Mundi with Skelton and Koeman from 1962 to 1970, also credits the convening of the symposium to Crone, and does not mention Skelton (Kartographische Nachrichten 20 (1970): 24b).
The question is, of course, of no practical importance in itself, and one has no wish to pit against each other two revered figures in the history of cartography for the honor. Either would have gladly credited the other. But as a fact in an objective discussion of the origin of the conferences, it is surely of interest to note that it could only have been Crone who was directly involved in the earliest preparations for the symposium in late 1962 and early 1963. Crone, we know, was Librarian of the RGS, and nothing in his biographies would indicate that he was occupied other than at that post at the time, and, in that post, could hardly have been otherwise than involved in the preparations for the upcoming great congress. But Skelton, although continuing as British Museum Superintendent of Maps, was on sabbatical leave in 1962-63 at Harvard University's Widener Library, serving as consultant and Acting Map Curator.⁵ He also gave lectures there on the history of cartography, as well as presenting the first James Ford Bell Lecture at the University of Minnesota on February 27, 1963. He apparently even taught a course at Harvard (Wood, p. 29, item II/H/2).
It would seem that Skelton could hardly have been deeply involved in the earliest arrangements occurring in London in late 1962 and early 1963, and the Skelton correspondence catalogued in the Wood volume just mentioned seems to confirm that his active role in the preparations began only after his return from the sabbatical. At pp. 29-31 Skelton's correspondence is catalogued having to do specifically with the 1964 symposium, and although there is a large amount of it, the earliest item is dated June 18, 1963, no doubt just after his return from Harvard. From that date on, the correspondence on the symposium is pretty much non-stop until some time after the symposium's end. Thus the earliest efforts resulting in the formation of the original symposium, first reflected in print in the second congress circular compiled in late 1962 and distributed in May 1963, must have been carried out by Crone.

Both clearly expended much effort on the event once Skelton had returned, assisted by Helen Wallis, and it was a great success. They continued to work together, along with others, on the second and third conferences, in 1967 and 1969, although it would appear that Skelton's role in those was probably more active than that of Crone.⁶

The success of the symposium in 1964 led to a second, London, 1967, which was referred to as a "conference on the history of cartography," as, for instance, in the Geographical Journal 133 (1967), p. 575, but still not as "The second." The third, however, in Brussels, 1969, was referred to from the start as "The Third International Conference on the History of Cartography," as, for instance, the advance notice in Imago Mundi, 21 (1967), p. 110.