June 23, 2006
Maps in Our Lives
Countries of the World Map
This map of the world uses the Robinson Projection, which shows distortions in areas and distances that results in a more natural visualization of the globe on a flat surface. The projection was created by Arthur H. Robinson (1915-2004). Robinson, under commission from Rand McNally, was a renowned scholar of geography and cartography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The National Geographic Society adopted the projection in 1988 and was used for their world maps for ten years. Robinson's equal-area projection has been widely used in textbooks and atlases over the past several decades.