Since its inception in 1876, the AMC has been at the forefront in mapping the White Mountains. The first issue of AMC’s
Appalachia included a sketch map and article by J.B. Hincks, Jr. about the regional topography. Henry Francis Walling collaborated with the U.S. Coast Survey to publish a “Map of the White Mountains” in 1877. This is the first map of the White Mountains to show longitude from the Greenwich Meridian and depict the topography using contour lines. William Pickering, AMC Councilor for Exploration, produced the first map designed for hikers in 1882.
Louis Cutter, the “Dean of Maps” for the AMC, produced maps of the White Mountains beginning in 1885. His maps became the basis of AMC’s White Mountain Guide maps from 1907 until the digital era began in the 1990s. In 1994, Larry Garland became AMC’s first full-time staff cartographer. Today GIS and GPS technologies are the mainstay tools for AMC’s highly accurate maps.
For a thorough history of mapmaking in the White Mountains, see AMC’s White Mountain Guide, A Centennial Retrospective.
