SPECIAL SESSION OF THE ICA COMMISSION ON THE HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY
Held at the 25th International Conference on the History of Cartography (ICHC)
Helsinki, Finland
30 June – 5 July 2013
The 25th ICHC (International Conference on the History of Cartography), organised by the Cartographic Society of Finland in collaboration with Imago Mundi Ltd, took place in Helsinki, Finland from 30 June – 5 July 2013. Local organisers included the National Land Survey of Finland, the National Library of Finland, Aalto University, the University of Helsinki, and the Geographical Society of Finland.
Although the ICA and ICHC are two completely independent organisations, the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography has a long-standing arrangement with the ICHC to present a half-day ICA-oriented programme on the day prior to the main ICHC conference.
National Library of Finland
ICA SESSION, 29 JUNE 2013
The audience at the ICA Session Prof Imre Demhardt
Dr Liudmila Zinchuk (Head of the Map Department, Russian State Library, Moscow)
Benedicte Gamborg Briså (Map Curator, National Library of Norway, Oslo)
Dr Jan Strang (President, Finnish Map Society, Helsinki)
Anda Juta Zalite (Head of the Map and Geospatial Information Department, National Library of Latvia, Riga)
Dr Markus Heinz (Deputy Director: Map Department, Berlin State Library, Berlin)
25th ICHC CONFERENCE, 30 JUNE – 5 JULY 2013
Marina Conference Centre, Helsinki
The ICHC2013 which took place in the Marina Conference Centre in Helsinki was attended by 476 delegates. Three members of the ICA Commission on the HoC presented papers:
- Prof Elri Liebenberg (South Africa)
- Prof Imre Josef Demhardt (University of Texas, United States)
- Dr Peter Collier (University of Portsmouth, UK)
TECHNICAL TOUR TO ORAVIVUORI
One of the technical tours of the ICHC which was sponsored by the National Land Survey of Finland, took delegates by coach to Oravivuori, one of the Struve Geodetic Arc points situated approximately 150 km north of Helsinki. The Struve Geodetic Arc is a triangulation chain which was measured during the years 1816-1855 to gain accurate knowledge on the exact size and shape of the earth. The chain includes 265 main station points and 258 main triangles and stretches over 2820 km from the Black Sea to Hammerfest in Norway. In 2005, 34 of the station points, one of them being Oravivuori, were included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage Site.
The Struve Arc The UNESCO plaque at Oravivuori
The wooden structure erected Struggling to the top
above the geodetic point Oravivuori
The Finnish landscape as seen from Oravivuori Catherine Delano-Smith, Martijn Storms and Imre Demhardt