The ''National Atlas of the United States'' was an

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geogra ...

published by the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

from 1874 to 1997. Older editions were printed, but the most recent edition was available online. Since it is a publication of the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, the atlas and its maps are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

. According to the U.S. National Atlas website, this atlas "provided a comprehensive, maplike view into the enormous wealth of geospatial and geostatistical data collected for the United States." Its purpose was also to increase "geographic knowledge and understanding and to foster national self-awareness." Information used to develop the ''National Atlas of the United States'' was also used in conjunction with Canadian and Mexican information to produce continental-scale tools such as the ''

North American Environmental Atlas The ''North American Environmental Atlas'' is an interactive mapping tool created through a partnership of government agencies in Canada, Mexico and the United States, along with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trilateral internati ...

''. The online ''National Atlas of the United States'' contained thousands of printable maps, fully documented digital cartographic datasets, wall maps, Web map and features services that complied with Open Geospatial Consortium standards, wall maps, multimedia dynamic maps, and innovative mapping applications. In late 2013, mapping managers at the U.S. Geological Survey decided to end the program despite the fact that nationalatlas.gov received three times the use of its other mapping service nationalmap.gov. The demise of the ''National Atlas'' was announced in February 2014 and nationalatlas.gov was taken offline on October 1, 2014. Since the Atlas' retirement, its data remains available in two places: * Data published in the ''National Atlas'' is archived as ''1997-2014 Edition of The National Atlas of the United States'' on the U.S. government's website. * The U.S. Geological Survey continues to make at least a subset of the ''National Atlas'' data available under its ''National Map Small Scale Collection.'' A few of the datasets have been updated since the ''Atlas'' retired.

History

1874 edition

The first national atlas of the United States, titled the ''Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census 1870'', was published in 1874. Francis A. Walker, the Superintendent of the 1870 U.S. Census compiled this atlas "with contributions from many eminent men of science and several departments of the government." The 1874 U.S. National Atlas contained population maps as well as economic and natural resources maps (including maps of forests, precious metals, coal, climate, and crops).

1920 edition

Henry Gannett Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an American geographer who is described as the "father of mapmaking in America."Evans, Richard Tranter; Frye, Helen M. (2009).History of the Topographic Branch (Division) (PDF). ''U.S. Ge ...

, who worked as the Chief Geographer of both the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), led the production of three additional national atlases of the United States after 1874, with the last of these atlases being published in 1920.

1970 edition

The next edition of the national atlas of the United States was issued in 1970—half a century later. The USGS and its chief

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Dr. Arch C. Gerlach oversaw the preparation and production (which took several years to complete) of the 1970 ''U.S. National Atlas'' as well. The 1970 atlas weighed twelve pounds, contained four hundred pages, and had a collection of 765 maps. These maps showed "scientific information from a variety of Federal sources and depicted the principal characteristics of the country, including its physical features, historical evolution, economic activities, sociocultural conditions, administrative subdivisions, and place in world affairs." The 1970 atlas was primarily created for use by United States government officials, researchers, and others who need "to visualize country-wide patterns and relationships between environmental phenomena and human activities". 15,000 copies of the 1970 atlas were printed, and its price of made it cost-prohibitive for most Americans. A majority of those 15,000 copies were bought by schools and libraries. The 1970 atlas has been out of print since the early 1970s, but the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

posted it online as part of its

American Memory American Memory is an internet-based archive for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content. Published by the Library of Congress, the archive launched on October 13, 1994, after $13 million was raised in ...

collection. ''The 1970 National Atlas of the United States of America page describes the development of this atlas briefly and gives a link to the Library of Congress archive.

1997 edition

The final ''National Atlas'' of the United States was created in 1997 and was published online through the first nine months of 2014. The

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

led the creation of this edition of the ''National Atlas'', but more than twenty U.S. federal agencies cooperated in producing it. Its varied products and services included the first online interactive mapping program offered by the Federal government.

Availability of 1997-2014 Atlas data

The ''National Atlas'' data was archived as ''1997-2014 Edition of The National Atlas of the United States'' on the U.S. government's website. The U.S. Geological Survey continues to make at least a subset of the ''National Atlas'' data available under its ''National Map Small Scale Collection.'' The

has updated a handful of the ''Atlas'' datasets on its pages since the Atlas retired. The

groups the datasets it hosts into six "chapters" as follows: # Land Cover:

impervious surface Impervious surfaces are mainly artificial structures—such as pavements (roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots, as well as industrial areas such as airports, ports and logistics and distribution centres, all of which use considerable p ...

, Land Cover, Tree Canopy # Governmental Units/Boundaries: Congressional Districts, Counties, Federal lands, States... # Elevation: Contours, Elevation, Natural Earth, Satellite View, Shaded Relief... # Geographic Names/Map Reference: Cities and Towns, Coastline, Urban Areas... # Transportation: Airports, Parkways and Scenic Rivers, Railroads, Roads... # Water: Dams, Networked Hydrography, Gaging Stations, Streams and Waterbodies...

References

External links

{{Commons category, National Atlas of the United States
''Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census 1870''
– the "1874 edition" published by the U.S. Dept of the Interior, printed by Julius Bien, on the

website. ''(Note: LOC presents this document as the 1870 edition.)''
''Scribner's Statistical Atlas of the United States''
– the "1880 edition" published and copyright 1883 by Charles Scribner's Sons, on the

website.
''Statistical Atlas of the United States Based Upon the Results of the Eleventh Census''
– the "1890 edition" published by the U.S. Dept of the Interior, on the

website.
''Statistical Atlas, 1900''
— the "1900 edition" of the Statistical Atlas on

FRASER Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

''Statistical Atlas of the United States, 1910''
— the "1910 edition" of the Statistical Atlas on

''Statistical Atlas of the United States, 1920''
— the "1920 edition" of the Statistical Atlas on

''The National Atlas of the United States of America''
– the "1970 edition" published by the U.S. Dept of the Interior, on the

website.
''Census Atlas of the United States''
— the "2000 edition" on

Atlases Publications of the United States government United States Department of the Interior