COLLECTION NAME:
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Record
Author:
SCHWEIZERISCHEN OBERPOSTDIREKTION
Date:
1902
Short Title:
Schweizerische Postverwaltung. Übersicht der internen Postverbindungen (mit den ausländischen Anschlüssen). Winterdienst 1902/03. / Administration des Postes suisses. Tableau des Communicators postales internes et des routes étragers correspondants. Service d’hiver 1902/03.
Publisher:
Lith. Bigler
Publisher Location:
Bern
Type:
Separate Map
Obj Height cm:
76
Obj Width cm:
104
Country:
Switzerland
Subject:
Data Visualization
Subject:
Postal
Full Title:
Schweizerische Postverwaltung. Übersicht der internen Postverbindungen (mit den ausländischen Anschlüssen). Winterdienst 1902/03. / Administration des Postes suisses. Tableau des Communicators postales internes et des routes étragers correspondants. Service d’hiver 1902/03.
List No:
15643.000
Publication Author:
SCHWEIZERISCHEN OBERPOSTDIREKTION
Pub Date:
1902
Pub Title:
Schweizerische Postverwaltung. Übersicht der internen Postverbindungen (mit den ausländischen Anschlüssen). Winterdienst 1902/03. / Administration des Postes suisses. Tableau des Communicators postales internes et des routes étragers correspondants. Service d’hiver 1902/03.
Pub Note:
"Photolithograph in blue-tone, with contemporary Hungarian postal inventory handstamp, pastedown label and inscription to upper left corner A seemingly unrecorded, highly sophisticated geo-diagram of the network of the Swiss Postal Service as it existed at the beginning of the 20th century, printed in blue-tone, postal nodes are connected by stylized lines that represent the various daily routes, detailing the arrival times of deliveries and the methods of transport employed, being a ‘Reise und Influenz-Karte’ in the form pioneered in the 1820s by the great visionary of data visualization, Franz Raffelsperger, published in Berne by the Schweizerischen Oberpostdirektion. This sophisticated, highly stylized, bilingual (German-French) geo-diagram showcases the Swiss postal system and its connections to those of bordering states as they existed at the beginning of the 20th century, a period of economic prosperity and high postal volumes. Published in Berne for the Schweizerischen Oberpostdirektion / Direction Générale des Postes Suisses [General Directorate of the Swiss Postal Service] by the lithography firm of Bigler, in October 1902, it specifically shows the planned service for the Winter of 1902-3. The diagram is anchored by the nodes of Zürich, Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Bellinzona, Chur, St. Gallen, Aarau, Luzern, which are the main Swiss postal centres. Between these nodes and numerous smaller named towns (home to post offices), as well as nearby foreign postal centres (i.e., Milano, Lyon (towards Paris and London), Innsbruck, Munich, Freiburg im Breisgau), run a series of lines that represent the different daily postal routes, each marked with the scheduled arrival times of the deliveries in each centre. The various routes are labelled by identification numbers, while the various symbols that mark the lines, as described in the Zeichen Erkältung / Explicaiton des signes [Legend], lower right, identify the methods of transport employed along the respective routes. The placement of the lines and nodes have a rough planimetric accuracy that in aggregate conveys the vague geographic profile of Switzerland, so in this sense making the diagram a map. This type of diagram is termed in German as a ‘Reise und Influenz-Karte’ [roughly translating as a ‘travel and communications chart’]. This highly progressive, advanced form of data visualization was pioneered in the 1820s by Franz Raffelsperger (1793-1861), then an employee of the Austrian Postal Service, who was one of the most fascinating and underappreciated mapmakers of the 19th century, responsible for innovative, proto-modernist map designs and unusual printing techniques. Specifically, the first printed manifestation of this type of diagram was Raffelperger’s Reise und Influenz-Karte der vorzüglichsten Eil-Post und Brancardwagen Course in dem Oesterreichischen Kaiserstaate (Vienna, 1826), which showcases the Austrian postal system. Please see a link to the example held by the David Rumsey Map Collection (Stanford University): https://www.davidru… In the decades following Raffelsperger’s work, various European postal systems, primarily in the Alpine region, created their own ‘Reise und Influenz-Karten’ of their networks. However, these diagrams were never popular, or mass produced, as they required a very high level of technical ability to draft (beyond the capabilities of most postal cartographers), while they were thought as being too complicated for use by laymen. They tended to be made occasionally as professional administrative tools for postal managers, and less often, for major commercial interests that were key clients of the postal systems. All examples of ‘Reise und Influenz-Karten’ are today very to extremely rare, as the small number of titles tended to be issued in only very limited print runs, while the survival rate of such ephemeral works is very low. The present work seems the be unrecorded, as we cannot find any references to it, let alone the location of another example. References: N/A – Seemingly Unrecorded. " (Alexander Johnson/Dasa Pahor, 2023)
Pub List No:
15643.000
Pub Type:
Separate Map
Pub Height cm:
76
Pub Width cm:
104
Image No:
15643000.jp2
Authors:
SCHWEIZERISCHEN OBERPOSTDIREKTION
