The Flat Earth Map
In 1892 Alexander Gleason, author of Is the Bible from Heaven? Is the Earth a Globe? , published his New Standard Map of the World. The map includes the subheading ‘ As it is ,’ reflecting Gleason’s belief that the map showed a world that was flat - and not round. The map actually uses an azimuthal equidistant projection (which the map's subheading indicates was borrowed from an English cartographer). An azimuthal equidistant projection shows the Earth on a flat surface so that: Distances from a single central point are accurate. Directions (azimuths) from that central point are also accurate. You can explore an interactive version of Gleason's New Standard Map of the World on the website of the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library. The original map had two physical “hands”. The library's copy of the map only has one of the two broken rulers remaining. These rulers functioned as movable measuring arms. These were intended to be rotated from t...
