From brushstrokes to pixels: 100 years of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation

Whether it¡¯s Google Maps, a hiking map or a world atlas, we use maps in our day-to-day lives for orientation and information. However, a president¡¯s decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America recently served as a reminder that these works also have a political component.  

The Swiss World Atlas, which many of us first encountered in school, describes maps as the result of a process of interpretation, classification and abstraction. This makes it clear that maps are always based on subjective decisions.

Celebrating more than a mere anniversary 

The commemorative publication Engineers of Map Art, published by ETH Zurich¡¯s Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation to mark its 100th anniversary, is also refreshingly subjective. Lead author Lorenz Hurni, current Professor of Cartography at ETH Zurich, and his co-authors are not afraid of classifications and clear statements, which makes the work a lively and worthwhile read.  

The work is shaped by the observation that cartography at ETH has repeatedly been threatened by marginalisation. The institute¡¯s founding is considered an important event, even if it rested primarily on some paint and a brush. But more on that later. 

The importance that the authors attach to the institute is expressed in the publication¡¯s two subtitles, which actually point to two anniversaries. 100 Years of the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation refers to the ¡®real¡¯ anniversary, but includes only four of the six ETH professors at the institute to date. The second subtitle, 170 Years of Cartography at ETH Zurich, makes it clear that the work covers the entire period since the founding of the university.  

The history of cartography is an important part of the history of ETH Zurich. Exploring it reveals a lot about the founding of the Polytechnic Institute in 1855 and how it functioned over the years. While maintaining a focus on cartography and geoinformation, the commemorative publication provides general insights into how professors were (and are) appointed, how the university was organised in different eras and what factors lead to changes in course content.  

Details on appointments, professorships, the search for third-party funding, but also on rivalries among scientists make for an entertaining read. In addition, the publication provides information on the backgrounds and interests of the professors, not only in the text, but also in the form of maps, drawings and photos.

Origins of Swiss cartography 

A chapter is dedicated to each of the five ETH cartography professors and the current Professor of Geoinformation Engineering. They are preceded by another chapter on the origins of Swiss cartography, taking us back to the 16th century, when the country¡¯s first maps and reliefs were created ¨C often with a military focus. It is noteworthy that even the works of that time gained international recognition.  

From a Zurich perspective, names such as Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, to whom a street near ETH¡¯s main building is dedicated, are of interest. At the beginning of the 18th century, he received great attention with his map ¡°Nova Helvetiae tabula geographica¡± and contributed to the emergence of English Alpine tourism with his international appeal. Besides the military and tourism, schools served as the third driver of cartography.  

In the mid-19th century, the Dufour map caused a sensation among experts and was once described as the ¡°most exquisite map in the world¡±. Within Switzerland, the first accurate cartographic representation of the country was regarded as the newly founded confederation¡¯s first major achievement, making it a source of national identity. The map was published by the Topographical Bureau, which was considered the undisputed centre of excellence for cartography in Switzerland well into the 20th century.  

The first two professors as forerunners of the institute 

Johannes Wild was appointed as the first Professor of Cartography by the newly founded Polytechnic Institute, as the ETH was known until 1911. As the former head of the Topographic Bureau in Zurich, he presented no threat to the supremacy of the ¡°big sister¡± (today¡¯s swisstopo) in Bern, the authors state right at the beginning of the chapter. He is described as highly versatile, but from a cartography perspective he made his greatest achievements in mapping before being appointed professor.

At the newly founded university, everything revolved around education ¨C including cartography. However, in the following decades, Wild¡¯s main focus was on training engineers, who were urgently needed for large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Gotthard railway. When he resigned in 1889 at the age of 75, Fridolin Becker, who was already working with Wild as an assistant, took over his courses. 

The authors write that cartography had a neglected existence at the time. This is evident in the slow process that Becker went through until he was promoted to full professor, for instance. The field also lacked the infrastructure for research. It was only thanks to commissions from third parties, in particular the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), that Becker was able to develop new maps, which were very innovative at the time.  

A special concern of his was to make maps available to broad sections of the population. His focus was therefore on school maps and atlases. However, it was his successor Eduard Imhof who first managed to complete an atlas for public schools. He had already taken over Becker¡¯s courses due to the latter¡¯s illness during his final years. 

The founding of the institute 

In 1925, Imhof was appointed associate professor and asked for his own room. When this request was granted, he instructed the painters to write ¡°Cartographic Institute¡± over the door: this act marks the starting point for this year¡¯s celebration and the commemorative publication.  

There was no clear rule at the time on what constituted an institute at ETH Zurich. However, the title did not change the fact that Imhof was the only professor at the institute and that his professorship was endowed with modest funds. A second professorship was not added until Martin Raubal was appointed in 2010.

Atlases for Switzerland and an international reputation 

The episode illustrates that, with Imhof, an assertive personality had taken the helm. We have him to thank, for example, for the 1:25,000 scale maps of Switzerland. During a ¡°seven-year war of national maps¡± with the support of allies from the Alpine Club and scientific and professional associations, he prevented the Office of Topography from abolishing this scale. He considered his victory in this battle to be his greatest professional success, as the authors write. 

His persistence was also reflected in the National Atlas project. He proposed this idea in 1939 as part of the National Exhibition, but it would take more than 20 years before he received a commission from the Federal Council. The Atlas of Switzerland, containing more than 400 maps, was published in German, French and Italian in 1965. Imhof described it as his most important work. He had already published the Secondary School Atlas in 1932 and the Lower Secondary School Atlas two years later.

Digitalisation and relocation to the H?nggerberg campus 

Given this level of excellence, it is surprising from today¡¯s perspective that Imhof, too, focused on education and tended to minimise the importance of research. This did not change until the 1970s, when ETH generally began to develop into an international research university.

Ernst Spiess, a student of Imhof, who was appointed Professor of Cartography in 1964, took advantage of the opportunities this boom offered, making a name for himself as a pioneer in computer-aided cartography.  

During the move to the H?nggerberg campus in the mid-1970s, Spiess was able to procure a high-performance drafting system and developed the institute into a sought-after point of contact regarding cartographic matters, for both internal and external institutes, government agencies and private companies. At the same time, this new research infrastructure established a basis for dissertations. The first dissertation in cartography was published in 1980. 

At the same time, Spiess made great efforts in education to make cartography an attractive major for students. The discipline had always had to struggle to attract students. However, according to the calculations of Spiess, who estimated the number of jobs in Switzerland at around 200, 25 of which are in managerial positions, the labour market is also limited. 

Spiess¡¯s efforts to establish a second professorship at the institute had remained unsuccessful by the time he retired in 1996. This was only to be achieved by his successor. 

A second professorship and a glimpse into the future 

After graduating, Lorenz Hurni worked as an assistant to Spiess and was his fourth doctoral student. He was also the first professor in the history of cartography at ETH Zurich to go through the full appointment process.  

Hurni has established a new research focus on the vectorisation of historical maps, which also makes use of machine learning methods. The aim is to generate plausible data using these sources to enable comparisons with the precise geodata of today. Such time series are of interest for applications such as the renaturation of bodies of water.

Like his predecessors, Hurni is the editor-in-chief of the atlases, where he sees great potential for cartographic research in view of imminent technical changes.  

Hurni was able to secure a second professorship for the institute, not least thanks to his institutional knowledge, which he acquired in various roles for the department and ETH.  

With the appointment of Martin Raubal as Professor of Geoinformation Engineering in 2011, not only did the name of the institute change to Cartography and Geoinformation, it also broadened considerably with research applications in the fields of energy and mobility. As a result, the institute¡¯s portfolio has become increasingly popular among students.