Washington Map Society
Ristow Prize
THE DR. WALTER W. RISTOW PRIZE
FOR AN ACADEMIC PAPER IN THE HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY
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The Dr. Walter W. Ristow Prize, offered annually by the Washington Map Society since 1994, recognizes academic achievement in the History of Cartography. It honors the legacy of the late Dr. Walter W. Ristow, former chief of the Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress, and co-founder and first president of the Washington Map Society.
See previous prize winners HERE
THE AWARD
The winner of the Ristow Prize Competition shall receive the following:
• $1000 cash award
• a one-year membership in the Washington Map Society
• publication of the paper in The Portolan - Journal of the Washington Map Society
• six copies of The Portolan in which the winning paper appears
Publication of the winning paper is a requisite for receipt of the Ristow Prize. It is the responsibility of the winning scholar to work with the editor of The Portolan to prepare the paper for publication. The cash award is paid on verification by the editor that the author has provided the necessary assistance to make publication possible.
A designation of Honorable Mention may be awarded at the judges' discretion. The recipient of this designation shall receive the following:
• a one-year membership in the Washington Map Society
• possible publication of the paper in The Portolan - Journal of the Washington Map Society
• if published, six copies of The Portolan in which the paper appears
Publication of a paper designated for Honorable Mention is at the discretion of the editor of The Portolan, and only with the consent of the author. Publication is not a requisite for receipt of that designation.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE
This competition is open to all full or part-time undergraduate, graduate, and first year post-doctoral students attending accredited colleges and universities anywhere in the world. A number of Ristow Prize winners and Honorable Mentions have come from outside the United States.
CRITERIA FOR PAPERS
Research papers must be related to the history of cartography. Merely using maps to relate an episode in history is not sufficient, unless the maps date from the period of the event, and/or disclose new information about that event, and/or the study of those maps constitutes a major focus of the paper. It may be helpful to review the List of Ristow Prize Winners on this web site to help grasp the variety of papers that have won in past years' competitions.
The papers must be completed to fulfill academic requirements. For example, they may be research papers submitted to fulfill course work, or they may be a portion or adaptation of a portion of a thesis or dissertation. The entrant must be prepared to provide the name and contact information of the professor, instructor, or reader for which the paper was done, and the title of the course. This need not accompany the paper.
The paper must be in English and must be documented in a style selected by the author. Papers must not exceed 7500 words. Bibliography and reference footnotes are not counted in the 7500 word limit. Textual or explanatory footnotes or asterisked remarks are counted in the 7500 word limit and cannot be used to circumvent that limit.
The entrant must submit four unbound copies of the paper. Each copy must have a cover sheet that states the entrant's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, school and academic status, and title of paper. Each paper must also have a title page containing only the title that appeared on the cover page. This facilitates blind judging of the papers.
Papers which have been previously presented at academic symposia or entered in other competitions remain eligible for the Ristow Prize.
Papers must not, however, have been published, selected for publication, or in contention for publication at the time of entry into the Ristow Prize competition. Serious copyright implications make this necessary. This criterion is not circumvented by a change of title and/or wording to what is essentially the same article that has appeared in another publication. Any circumstance which renders publication of the winning paper in The Portolan impossible will void the selection of that paper as the winning entry.
JUDGING PROCESS AND CRITERIA
Judging is performed by three persons with suitable background in the history of cartography. They are often drawn from the membership of the Washington Map Society, and they have included some of the most learned academics, archivists, and collectors of our time. The identity of the judges is not made public.
There are three broad criteria used to judge Ristow Prize entries:
• importance of research (e.g., originality, sources used)
• quality of research (e.g., accuracy, source reliability)
• writing quality (e.g., clarity, organization, and command of cartographic terms)
Each judge works independently to evaluate each paper. It is not a consultative process. Their results are reported to the Ristow Prize chair, who collates them. This collation, and not the opinion of the Ristow Prize Chair, determines the recipient of the Ristow Prize and the designation(s) of Honorable Mention, if any.
Judging is done as quickly as is practical. Papers cannot be sent to the judges sooner than a month after the postmark deadline to ensure that all overseas entries have been received. One or more judges may be traveling or performing research of their own during the summer months. For that reason, results are seldom forthcoming until the middle of the fall semester.
DEADLINE
Papers should be converted to a PDF document and submitted to kaparker18th@gmail.com by 12:59 PM EST on the date of the submission deadline. Please ensure that the PDF includes a title page and cover sheet including the entrant’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and school, department, and academic status.
Next date of submission deadline: June 1, 2020 and annually on June 1 thereafter. Email to Dr Katherine Parker, Chair of the Ristow Prize, kaparker18th@gmail.com .
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
When a paper is published, The Portolan may carry a brief (half page) profile of the author, for which biographic information and a recent photo will be requested.
Publication in The Portolan places the winning paper in some of the top academic and intellectual institutions in the world. The Portolan is available at the Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale, and several other national libraries. It is on the shelves of libraries at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Oxford, Trinity Dublin, and other outstanding universities. It appears at prestigious private institutions such as the Huntington Library, Newberry Library, and New York Public Library. A complete list of institutional recipients can be found HERE.
QUESTIONS
Questions may be directed to the chair at kaparker18th@gmail.com .
The Walter W. Ristow Prize Results
1994 Ristow Prize Winner
John Hamer, Graduate Student, University of Michigan
Worlds Apart: Norman Mappaemundi in England and Sicily
1994 Second Place
Brendan Ford, MS Geography Candidate, George Mason University
The History of Modem Mapping in Fairfax County, Virginia
1994 Third Place
Aaron B. Retish, Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin
A Foreign Perception of Russia: An Analysis of Anthony Jenkinson's Map of Russia, Muscovy, and Tartaria
1995 Ristow Prize Winner
Stephanie Abbot Roper, PhD Candidate, University of Kansas
Image Is Everything: English Maps of Colonial North America as Promotional Tools, 1530-1660
1995 Second Place
Martin Coulter, Undergraduate, University of Aberdeen, Scotland:
John Wood's Plan of the Cities of Aberdeen, 1828
1996 Ristow Prize Winner
Stephen C. Pinson, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
Repressed Mimesis: Jomard and the ‘Monuments de la Geographie’
1996 Honorable Mention
David Hays, Graduate Student, Yale University
Antiquarian Cartography and the Origins of the Palazzo Barberini in Seventeenth Century Rome
1997 Ristow Prize Winner
Philip J. Stern, Undergraduate, Wesleyan University
Notwithstanding the Efforts of the Ancients and the Wishes of the Moderns: The Authority of
Cartography in the Origins of the Modern British Exploration of Africa
1997 Honorable Mention
Stephen Tseng-hsin Chang, PhD/MPh Candidate, University of Reading
The Portuguese Maritime Discoveries Along the South East Coast of China in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century: A Cartographic View, 1513-1550
1998 Ristow Prize Winner
Kenneth Mitchell, Graduate Student, University of Minnesota
Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla's Mapa Geografico de America Meridional
1998 Honorable Mention
Lucy Chester, PhD Candidate, Yale University
Mapping Imperial Expansion: Colonial Cartography in North America and South Asia
1998 Honorable Mention
Lisa Davis-Allen, PhD Candidate, University of Texas at Arlington
The National Palette: Painting and Map-Coloring in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic
1998 Honorable Mention
Jennifer Turnham, PhD Candidate, University of Minnesota
Mapping the New World: Nicolas Sanson's 'Amerique Septentrionale' and French Cartography in the Seventeenth Century
1999 Ristow Prize Winner
Neil Safier, PhD Candidate, Johns Hopkins University
Mapping Myths: The Cartographic Boundaries between Science
and Speculation on La Condamine's Amazon, 1743-44
1999 Honorable Mention
Kenneth Mitchell, Graduate Student, University of Minnesota
Mapping the French Empire: Jean Boisseau's 1643 'Description de la Nowelle France' (Note: Mr. Mitchell won the Ristow Prize in 1998.)
1999 Honorable Mention
Jilly Traganou, Post-Doctorate Scholar, Tokyo Keizai University
Geographic Representations of the Tokaio from Edo to Meiji Japan
2000 - No prize awarded
2001 Ristow Prize Winner
Dimitris K. Loupis, PhD Candidate, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Piri Reis' Book on Navigation and a Geography Handbook:
Ottoman Efforts to Produce an Atlas during the Reign of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-1687)
2001 Honorable Mention
Michael Kimaid, PhD Candidate, Bowling Green University
From That Last Point, The Line Is Less Exact: The Problem of Cartography Prior to the Louisiana Purchase
2001 Honorable Mention
Tine Ningal, MSc Candidate, International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), the Netherlands
A Case Study of Transition From Mental Map to Web-Based Mapping in PapuaNew Guinea for Cartographic Education
2002 Ristow Prize Winner
Gary Spurr, MA Candidate, University of Texas at Arlington
Maps of Conquest: Indian and Spanish Maps of MesoAmerica
2002 Honorable Mention
Rushika February Hage, PhD Candidate, University of Minnesota - Minneapolis
The Island Book of Henricus Martellus: Charting Lands Known and Unknown
2003 Ristow Prize Winner
Ben Sheesley, PhD Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A Humboltian Science Framework for William Whewell's Maps of the Oceanic Tides
2003 Honorable Mention
Yongtao Du, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contesting Spatial Order: Merchant Geography in Late-Ming China
2003 Honorable Mention
Mitia Frumin, PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Russian Navy Mapping Activities in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean (Late 18th Century)
2004 Ristow Prize Winner
Veronica Della Dora, PhD Candidate, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Mapping Science and Myth on the Holy Mountain:
Renaissance and Enlightenment Visions of Mount Athos
2005 Ristow Prize Winner
Ruth E. Watson, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
The Decorated Hearts of Oronce Fine: The 1531 Double Cordiform Map of the World
2005 Honorable Mention
Mark Fink, University of Texas at Arlington
Charting the Enlightenment: An Interpretation of Edmond Halley’s 1728 Chart of the Atlantick Ocean
2005 Honorable Mention
Robert Sherwood, University of Texas at Arlington
Humboldt’s Politics of Mapping: Alexander Humboldt’s Essay and General Chart of the Kingdom of New Spain
2006 Ristow Prize Winner
Gavin Hollis, University of Michigan
“Give me the map there”: King Lear and Cartographic Literacy in Early Modern England
2006 Honorable Mention
Jinny Gunston, University of Portsmouth, England
The Cowdray Engraving of the Siege of Boulogne, 1544. Analysis of a sixteenth century artifact. Combining historic documentation with modern technology
2006 Honorable Mention
Avan Stallard, University of Queensland, Australia
Navigating Tasman’s 1642 Voyage of Exploration: Cartographic Instruments and Navigational Decisions
2007 Ristow Prize Winner
Wesley J. Reisser, MA Candidate, George Washington University
Mapping the Peace: The American Inquiry and the Paris Peace Conference, 1918-1919
2007 Honorable Mention
Laura Ambrose, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Mapping "Travail" in Seventeenth-Century English Travel Guides
2008 Ristow Prize Winner
Diantha Steinhilper, PhD Candidate, Florida State University
Mapping Identity: Defining Community in the Culhuacán Map of the “Relaciones Geográficas”
2008 Honorable Mention
Alexander Hidalgo, PhD Candidate, University of Arizona
The Space between Us: Indigenous Mapmakers in Colonial Oaxaca
2008 Honorable Mention
Jason W. Smith, PhD Candidate, Temple University
Lighting the Path of the Mariner: Hydrography, Empire, and the U.S. Navy, 1898-1905
2009 Ristow Prize Winner
Matthew D. Mingus, PhD Candidate, University of Florida
Postwar Cartography and the Struggle to Build (and Destroy) the World Picture: A Few Case Studies
2009 Honorable Mention
John A. Legrid, MS in Geography Candidate, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Republic to Empire: The Use of Cartographic Imagery in Augustan Rome
2009 Honorable Mention
William Peake, University of Adelaide, Australia
How Historical Events Influenced the Map Content of the Atlases Published by Johnston and Stanford and the Events Determining These Decisions
2010 Ristow Prize Winner
Megan Barford, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
From “Terra Australis Incognita” to Whales and Shipping Routes: Cartographic Representations of the South Pacific, 1760-1860
2010 Honorable Mention
Emma Thompson, Skidmore College
The Sea Monsters of Olaus Magnus: Classifying Wonder in the Natural World of Sixteenth Century Europe
2011 Ristow Prize Winner
Kevin E. Sheehan, PhD Candidate, Durham University (England)
Utility and Aesthetic: The Function and Subjectivity of Two Fifteenth Century Portolan Charts
2011 Honorable Mention
Julie McDougall, Doctoral Student, University of Edinburgh
British School Atlases: Influence on Style and Map Content, c. 1870 – c. 1930
2012 Ristow Prize Winner
Thomas A. Weiss, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Texas, Arlington
MapAnalyst and Geographic Information Systems: Keys to Unlocking New Paths of Research in the History of Cartography
2012 Honorable Mention
Erin Maglaque, D.Phil Candidate, Oxford University
Writing Sentences with Toponyms: Archiving and Narrating the Colonial in the Cornaro Atlas
2013 Ristow Prize Winner
Justin T. Dellinger, PhD. Student at the University of Texas, Arlington
La Balise: A transimperial focal point
2013 Honorable Mention
Galia Halpern, a PhD. candidate in Fine Arts at New York University
Fantasies of Plenitude: The Textual and Graphic Space of India in the Middle Ages
2014 Ristow Prize Winner
David Fedman, PhD. candidate at Stanford University
Mapping Armageddon: The Cartography of Ruin in Occupied Japan
2014 Honorable Mention
Anouk Vermeulen, PhD. Student, St. Andrews University in Scotland
Landscapes in Stone and Bronze: A New Interpretation of Four Monumental Formae
2015 Ristow Prize
No prize awarded.
2016 Ristow Prize Winner
Ana del Cid Mendoza
PhD Architect
Professor of Urban History at E.T.S. Arquitectura, Universidad de Granada (Spain)
Orientalist cartographies: Granada and the Alhambra
2016 Honorable Mention
Valeria Manfrè , Post-Doctoral Research Fellow “Juan de la Cierva,” Art History Department, Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, University of Valladolid (Spain)
Theater of War – Mapping the Military Campaigns in Sardinia and Sicily: The Atlas of the Marqués de la Mina (1717-1720)
2017 Ristow Prize Winner
Lauren Bouchard Killingsworth
an undergraduate studying History and Biology at Stanford University
Mapping Public Health in Nineteenth-Century Oxford
2017 Honorable Mention
Koca Mehmet Kentel, Ph.D candidate, and an urban and environmental historian of the late Ottoman Istanbul, writing his dissertation at the University of Washington.
Navigating the British Empire through Geographical Board Games in the Nineteenth Century
2018 Ristow Prize Winner
Rheagan Eric Martin
PhD. candidate at the University of Michigan
Jacopo de' Barbari and the Limits of Knowledge
2018 Honorable Mentions
Jacob Singer, Wesleyan University
Exercises of Imagination and Speculation: Mapping the Unknown American Northwest in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
Gregory McIntosh, doctoral candidate at the University of Lisbon
What I Tell You Three Times is True: The Problem of the Dating of the Kunstmann I Chart
2019 Ristow Prize Winner
Andrew J. Rhodes
M.A. with Highest Distiction from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island
“The Geographical President: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Used Maps to Make and Communicate Strategy”
2019 Honorable Mention
Luis J. Suter, Master of Science, Department of Geography, The George Washington University
"Mapping the History of the Arctic: Global Connections in the Cartographic Record"
2020 Ristow Prize Winner
Emily Boak
M.A. in Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
"From the Hilltops: The British Mapping of Afghanistan, 1839-1919."