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Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Atlas of the Lost Missouri of Lewis & Clark
Review: In the spring of 2001, National Geographic Magazine editor Bill Allen was shown a map of the historic Missouri River of Lewis & Clark created by University of Missouri geographer and cartographer James D. Harlan. It was immediately recognized it as a one-of-a-kind historical gem. In the April 2002 issue of National Geographic, the magazine featured Harlan's extraordinary maps recreating the natural landscape along the Missouri River as seen by the Corps of Discovery on their outward and home bound journeys in 1804 and 1806. It was my priviledge to write the NGM article. I've watched Harlan and historian James Denny at work in the field and cannot underscore enough the enormity and significance of what they have accomplished with their monumental work-- Atlas of Lewis and Clark in Missouri. It includes 27 detailed computer-generated maps developed from early 19th-century survey documents that digitally replace today's Missouri River with the historic river as it was when the explorers passed through territorial Missouri. The maps depict the course of the Corps of Discovery, precisely locating their campsites and stopping points, as well as landscape features noted by the explorers in their journals. Profound changes in the Missouri River's course over the past 200 years due to flooding, earthquakes, meandering and alterations by the Corps of Engineers to improve navigation have rendered it impossible until now to accurately match the descriptions in the explorers' journals with locations along today's river. Harlan and Denny's atlas with its richly researched and beautifully written accompanying 70,000 word essay provides readers with an extraordinary window on a landscape thought until now to be lost. Little has been written about the work of surveyors who mapped the Missouri between 1815-1819 between St. Louis and Kansas City, a decade after the return of the Corps of Discovery. Using 21st century computer technology, Harlan has brought their detailed landscape observations collected in handwritten field notebooks alive again. The result is a collection of beautifully presented and historically accurate maps that match up precisely with Lewis & Clark's journal entries. Authors Harlan and Denny know the landscapes they present in their atlas firsthand. Lewis and Clark scholars and affectionados across the country have sung their praises from the moment the maps and atlas were released. Both are in high demand across the state and beyond its borders. This is an atlas to be read, savored, and revisited by Missourians and anyone else in love with exploration. This labor of love and talent is as close as one could hope to ever get to experiencing the Missouri River as the Corps of Discovery did 200 years ago. Bravo Harlan and Denny for giving us back the lost Missouri River of Lewis and Clark!
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Atlas of the Lost Missouri of Lewis & Clark
Review: In the spring of 2001, National Geographic Magazine editor Bill Allen was shown a map of the historic Missouri River of Lewis & Clark created by University of Missouri geographer and cartographer James D. Harlan. It was immediately recognized it as a one-of-a-kind historical gem. In the April 2002 issue of National Geographic, the magazine featured Harlan's extraordinary maps recreating the natural landscape along the Missouri River as seen by the Corps of Discovery on their outward and home bound journeys in 1804 and 1806. It was my priviledge to write the NGM article. I've watched Harlan and historian James Denny at work in the field and cannot underscore enough the enormity and significance of what they have accomplished with their monumental work-- Atlas of Lewis and Clark in Missouri. It includes 27 detailed computer-generated maps developed from early 19th-century survey documents that digitally replace today's Missouri River with the historic river as it was when the explorers passed through territorial Missouri. The maps depict the course of the Corps of Discovery, precisely locating their campsites and stopping points, as well as landscape features noted by the explorers in their journals. Profound changes in the Missouri River's course over the past 200 years due to flooding, earthquakes, meandering and alterations by the Corps of Engineers to improve navigation have rendered it impossible until now to accurately match the descriptions in the explorers' journals with locations along today's river. Harlan and Denny's atlas with its richly researched and beautifully written accompanying 70,000 word essay provides readers with an extraordinary window on a landscape thought until now to be lost. Little has been written about the work of surveyors who mapped the Missouri between 1815-1819 between St. Louis and Kansas City, a decade after the return of the Corps of Discovery. Using 21st century computer technology, Harlan has brought their detailed landscape observations collected in handwritten field notebooks alive again. The result is a collection of beautifully presented and historically accurate maps that match up precisely with Lewis & Clark's journal entries. Authors Harlan and Denny know the landscapes they present in their atlas firsthand. Lewis and Clark scholars and affectionados across the country have sung their praises from the moment the maps and atlas were released. Both are in high demand across the state and beyond its borders. This is an atlas to be read, savored, and revisited by Missourians and anyone else in love with exploration. This labor of love and talent is as close as one could hope to ever get to experiencing the Missouri River as the Corps of Discovery did 200 years ago. Bravo Harlan and Denny for giving us back the lost Missouri River of Lewis and Clark!
Rating: 
Summary: Big Book a Dispointment
Review: This book didn't arrive until December after I ordered it prior to the publisher's announced October release date (no fault of Amazon).This should have been a clue that something was wrong with it. I am sorry to say I'm very disapointed with the "Atlas". I thought it would be a scholarly book with quality maps and images. Instead it is a bloated, oversized coffee table book printed on glossy paper that will probably end up on the remainder table. The plates are decent enough except that they cover only a small part of the huge pages. The maps probably have detail in them somewhere but they too have such small print that one needs a magnifying glass to read them. It gets one star for the map pockets on the inside front and back covers. Too bad they only hold more glossy too large/too small maps. I would advise anyone to forego this book and instead spend the $60 they'll save on one the Moulton U of Nebraska editions.
Rating:
Summary: Destined to be a classic in its field
Review: This monumental book by James D. Harlan and James M. Denny is a remarkable feat of cartographic reproduction of the journey of Lewis and Clark up the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio River to the mouth of the Missouri River and then up the Missouri River to the Nebraska/Iowa border in 1803 and 1804, followed by a commentary on the return journey through Missouri in 1806 in addition to four map plates illustrating the historical land cover of the Missouri River valley in what is now the State of Missouri. The creation of these maps by James D. Harlan represents a painstakingly detailed analysis of original survey maps of the river cross referenced to Lewis and Clark journal entries to create as close a representation of the Missouri River as it passes through what is now the State of Missouri in the time of Lewis and Clark as is likely to ever be achieved. The beautifully reproduced map plates are accompanied by a thorougly researched and spledidly written text providing a highly readable, clear and coherent description of the journey through Missouri by James M. Denny. In my estimation this book will be the book all past as well as future attempts to describe and cartographically render any portions of the Lewis and Clark journey will be measured by. The authors, as well as the University of Missouri Press are to be commended for this amazing book.
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