The National Atlas

{{Article
 * Author=David Burchfield
 * Editor=Chris Maderia, Brian Bunker
 * BoK Topic=GS3
 * 311 Week=6
 * Tags=GIS data source
 * Content=The National Atlas is an internet atlas published by the United States Department of the Interior. Because it is a publication of the U.S. government, the atlas falls under the Freedom of Information Act and is available to the American public.  A print edition of the National Atlas was issued in 1970.

History
According to www.NationalAtlas.gov, in “1874, as the United States prepared its centennial celebration, the first national atlas was published under the title 'Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census 1870.' Francis A. Walker, the Superintendent of the ninth census, was given authority by Congress to compile an atlas "with contributions from many eminent men of science and several departments of the government." “This was the Federal Government's first use of a bound collection of maps and charts to characterize Americans and their land. In addition to population maps, this first atlas presented economic and natural resources maps, including forests, precious metals, coal, climate, and crops. This early work was improved upon by Henry Gannett, who served as the Chief Geographer of both the Census Bureau and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). He oversaw the production of the next three census atlases. The last 'Statistical Atlas' was based on the 1920 census.

“The next atlas was published 50 years later in 1970. The USGS led in the preparation of 'The National Atlas of the United States of America.' It was an oversized, 12-pound, 400-page book containing a collection of 765 maps. The maps in this atlas presented 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 expressly designed for use by decision makers in government and business, planners, research scholars, and others needing to visualize country-wide patterns and relationships between environmental phenomena and human activities.”

The government printed 15,000 copies of the atlas, which were priced at $100. The price placed the book out of reach for most Americans, and most of the copies were sold to libraries, schools, and commercial firms.

Congress authorized the creation of a new National Atlas in 1997. It was decided that the new edition was not to be printed, but made available via the internet.

GIS Services
The National Atlas provides free government data in Shapefile, SDTS-TVP, DBF, and GeoTIFF formats. All National Atlas data is distributed with accompanying metadata.

The National Atlas web site includes an interesting feature called "Map Maker." Map Maker allows anyone to create and print their own maps using any combination of map layers from the National Atlas. Background information is available for each map layer.

Other Services
Printable maps, wall maps, and interactive ("dynamic maps") are also available via the National Atlas web site at www.nationalatlas.gov. Both the printable maps and the interactive maps are available free of charge; the walls maps can be ordered for a small fee. Each of these map sets are divided into several different categories such as time zones, congressional districts, or vegetation growth. The printable maps can be downloaded in either a GIF or PDF file format.

Additionally, the web site contains various articles about the geography of America. They are again divided into different categories such as boundaries, government, and geology. }}