UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #1515
Edney, Matthew

EDNEY, Matthew (1962–)
Graduate student; director of the History of Cartography Project
At UW: 1983–90; 2005–present (MS 1985, PhD 1990)
Interviewed: March 30, 2016
Interviewer: Nichole Barnes
Indexed by: Nichole Barnes 
Length: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Abstract: In this 2016 interview, Matthew Edney, director of the History of Cartography Project, chronicles his education, professional development, and career in the history of cartography. Since 2005, Edney has led the History of Cartography Project, a long-term research endeavor housed in the UW geography department that explores the creation, use, significance, and cultural implications of mapmaking from antiquity to the twentieth century. 

Keywords: History of Cartography Project (University of Wisconsin—Madison. Department of Geography); cartography; geography; research; encyclopedias; Woodward, David; Harley, J.B. (John Brian); GIS

Interview Session 1

Session 1	Keywords

00:00:00	Interviewer Nichole Barnes introduces narrator Matthew Edney. 

00:00:32	Edney was born in 1962 in southwest London to a self-employed entrepreneur and a homemaker. He grew up in the Kingston neighborhood and attended local public schools. Edney describes his early schooling and the educational system in the UK.

00:04:19	Edney discusses his plan to go to college. He planned on becoming a land surveyor since geography always had been an easy subject for him. He found that the University College, London offered courses in land surveying and choose to attend the college. It was there that he discovered the field of historical geography.

00:06:26	During his last year of college, Edney took a course on research methods in historical geography with the late Hugh Prince. It was in this class that Edney was first introduced to J.B. Harley’s work. Harley’s research showed Edney how the technical components of land surveying and the theory of historical geography could be combined and studied as an academic discipline. Consequently, Edney decided to pursue a doctorate in map history.

00:09:54	Prince suggested that Edney consider studying in the US and suggested that he contact Norman Thrower, who was teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, and David Woodward at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Edney explains how and why he came to UW.

00:13:51	Edney moved to Madison in the fall of 1983 to began his studies. He was very interested in maps and surveying but quickly realized he knew little about the nuances of academia in the US.
 
00:14:26	Edney was Woodward’s first recruited student. Edney describes some of the students in the geography department and others who studied with Woodward. Edney details some of the classes he took and his appreciation of the range of course offerings at the university.

00:17:33	Edney completed his masters in December 1985 on late-nineteenth-century survey mapping in the US. He finished his PhD in May 1990 with a dissertation on British mapping in India.

00:18:02	In terms of the History of Cartography Project, Edney worked as illustrations editor for Volume 1 for two years. He left the Project to gain other experiences that would help him secure a higher position with the History in the future. He spent two years as a project assistant for the computer lab and one year as a teaching assistant. Edney describes his relationship with teaching.

00:21:34	During his graduate career, Edney also worked at the Cartography Lab. He then received funding to spend a year researching in London archives and spent a final year piecing together fellowships. 

00:23:34	Edney explains the origins of the History of Cartography Project. He begins by discussing the state of the field in the 1960s and 1970s, a time when three different types of scholars approached the study of maps very differently. 

00:27:07	Woodward and Harley met in 1969 in Brussels at the International Conference for the History of Cartography. After this initial meeting, Woodward wrote to Harley that the field needed more structure. Edney describes the early years of the two scholars’ relationship.

00:28:23	The History of Cartography series originated during a walk Woodward and Harley took while Woodward was visiting Exeter. Harley suggested that the field would benefit from a four-volume history of mapping in North America; Woodward countered by stating that the field really needed a four-volume history of cartography. Harley agreed, and the two began exchanging outlines and potential topics.
		
00:29:49	The goals of the series were bibliographic and foundational; the project aimed to be a comprehensive overview of the literature by showing what was known and unknown in the field.

00:30:58	By 1980, Woodward moved from the Newberry back to Madison to begin working at the UW (he replaced Arthur H. Robinson, who was Woodward’s graduate advisor at UW). Woodward’s own research interests were now firmly planted in the Italian Renaissance and map printing. The Project’s first grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities began July 1, 1981, and Woodward and Harley began work on the first volume, which covered classical and medieval mapping.

00:31:45	As a result of a conference in 1982, Woodward and Harley decided to separate out all material relating to Asia and making this content Volume 2. The founders then decided that the series would comprise six volumes. Volume 2 grew into three volumes in order to address indigenous cartography and mapping.

00:35:13	Edney describes how the series changed over time and how it influenced the field of the history of cartography. The Project stove to create a definition of a map. While producing Volume 1, the editors faced resistance from authors to push deeper into map history; some contributors even ceased working with the project.

00:41:43	Edney feels that Volume 1 was a first effort to produce interesting and provocative material on map history. Now, the material is out of date but it remains to be seen whether previous volumes will be updated. Woodward and Harley felt that the project was a foundation for new work, not definitive statement on mapping.

00:43:40	The intellectual effects of the History’s volumes took time to develop as scholars grappled with the new ideas published in each book. Edney describes how the series has influenced scholarship since the publication of Volume 1. 

00:43:11	Volume 3’s interpretive essays pushed authors to think about mapping in new ways, and they have become very important in the field since publication. For Volumes 4, 5, and 6, the encyclopedic structure significantly increased the number of authors for each volume, meaning the editors have to challenge even more contributors to think in new ways. 

00:47:40	Edney briefly reviews the timeline of the project. 

00:49:07	Edney finished his dissertation in May 1990. The job market was slim; there were only with four openings. He discusses the positions he applied for and the results of the interviewing process. 

00:50:52	Edney describes the early years of his career at SUNY-Binghamton. He was hired primarily to teach computer cartography. The geography department had a master’s program but it was focused on urban planning and applied geography, and over time, Edney decided he needed to find another intellectual home.

00:56:12	Edney relays why he moved to the University of Southern Maine.

00:57:36	Edney describes his relationship with Woodward and how he maintained that relationship after graduate school. 

00:59:21	Edney recalls his memories of Harley, and how the project coped with the loss of one of its founders after Harley’s death in 1991. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where Brian had worked since 1986, needed to find a replacement. 

01:04:06	In 1998, Woodward formally asked Edney to co-edit Volume 4 on the Enlightenment. The original plan was to have Edney and Graham Burnett co-edit the volume. Edney was hesitant to work with Burnett, and suggested that Woodward also invite Mary Pedley to work as an editor.

01:07:17	Edney, Burnett, and Pedley began to think about the volume’s organization, coverage, and synthesis. Given the one million-word limit set by the University of 
Chicago Press, the editors decided that the volume would need to be formatted as an encyclopedia.  

01:12:01	The editors realized that encyclopedic entries could still be interpretive and not just factual so they decided that they would have factual, interpretive, and summative entries. The editors still had to figure out how the entries themselves would be structured. 

01:15:08	Edney suggested that Volume 4 be organized around nine primary modes of cartography that would then be subdivided by nation. Under the guidance of a University of Chicago Press editor, the editors used hierarchically integrated conceptual clusters as the organizational framework. The clusters helped generate entry terms and scope descriptions for each entry. 

01:19:36	Progress on the volume was slow but steady. In 2003, Edney’s wife moved to Michigan to do doctoral work at Michigan State. For the academic year 2004–05, Edney received a teaching fellowship at the University of Michigan. During that time Edney learned of Woodward’s cancer.

01:22:35	During the same period, Edney and Pedley realized that Burnett was not pulling his weight. The situation came to a head a few months after Woodward’s death [August 2004] when Edney and Pedley pushed Burnett to either reaffirm his commitment to the project or leave altogether. In the end, Burnett decided to quit.

01:24:18	While in Ann Arbor, Edney and Pedley worked together closely [she also worked at the University of Michigan] to finalize the entry terms, authors, and other administrative tasks. Edney took over as project director in July 2005.

01:25:53	As director Edney had to figure out how to continue the project and decide whether it should be relocated to another campus. He describes the administrative bureaucracy surrounding university hiring and funding.

01:30:40	Volume 6 editor Mark Monmonier [Syracuse University] was working feverishly. The volume also used the encyclopedic format. Monmonier mapped out a workflow that kept him on track, and he was also able to hire associate editors to ease his workload. Edney and Pedley adopted this strategy for Volume 4. 

01:33:55	Edney discusses challenges the Project’s staff, including Woodward, faced, including difficult contributors, working simultaneously on three separate volumes, and copyright issues for illustrations.

01:36:15	Volume 6 was completed [2015] before 4 or 5. Volume 4 will debut in December 2018 or early 2019 while 5 will be sent to press in August 2019. Roger Kain is the editor for Volume 5 and has worked with two co-editors as well as associate editors.

01:39:56	Since its founding, the project has been supported financially by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. Edney discusses his relationship with NEH program officers and details how and why the digital edition of the series developed.

01:46:12	In addition to coming out in a digital format, another major change to the series has been that the last three volumes were printed completely in color. 

01:47:19	Edney lists funding challenges facing the project as the award amounts for federal grants shrinks. Edney also mentions the challenges the project faces as it comes to an end. 

01:49:44	End interview. 

END OF ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW #1515