Ethnographic Map of the World by A.K. Johnston, 1852

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Ethnographic Map of the World by A.K. Johnston – Races of Man Chart 1852 This antique map titled "Ethnographic Map … Read more Ethnographic Map of the World by A.K. Johnston – Races of Man Chart 1852 This antique map titled "Ethnographic Map of the World Showing the Present Distribution of the Leading Races of Man" was created by Alexander Keith Johnston and published in 1852 by William Blackwood & Sons in Edinburgh and London. Issued as Plate 17 in Johnston’s *Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena*, this map reflects 19th-century efforts to visualize human diversity across the globe through early ethnographic theory. The map categorizes the world's populations into ten generalized racial and cultural groupings, each represented in distinct pastel shades. These include classifications such as Indo-European, Semitic, Negro, Mongolian, Malay, American, and others based on contemporary (now outdated) 19th-century anthropological thought. The regions of distribution are shaded accordingly, spanning continents from the Arctic Circle to the islands of the Pacific. A large inset map at the bottom right provides a focused view of Europe, showing greater detail in the distribution of groups such as Slavonic, Germanic, Celtic, Basque, and Finnic peoples. Alongside it is a striking profile diagram illustrating the elevation of Earth's landmasses, tying physical geography to patterns of human settlement. This map, like many from the mid-19th century, combines the empirical ambitions of early anthropology with the visual clarity of scientific cartography. While its categories and terminology are now considered outdated and oversimplified, the chart is an important artifact from the history of ethnography and reflects the European scientific worldview of the time. See less