This year marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 – the American manned space mission that for the first time sent to Earth true photographic images of the planet. Scholars have argued that the images had a direct impact on the American environmental movement and helped to shape political culture in later decades.
This paper argues that a six-foot geo-physical globe model located in major institutional spaces across North America had already showed the planet’s true physical features due to the collaboration of popular magazine artists and leading scientists. Little scholarship has examined how this globe model contributed to science education and our visual understanding of Earth.
This study rests on a broad foundation of primary source research. Through photographic representation in major American magazine publications, archival research from the Rand McNally and Company records, oral history interviews with globe manufacturers, geographers, museum professionals, and cartographers, this paper shows how Rand McNally brought together the work of visual artists and scientists to add to our knowledge about Earth
This presentation asks the following questions: How did Rand McNally’s geophysical knowledge reach the American public through a giant globe? How did post-war advances in biology, astronomy, oceanography, geography, geology, and cartography help our understanding of what the Earth looked like before space exploration? How did the globe's prominence decline as technology advanced in other ways?
