A Czech historical atlas won three prestigious awards

On Friday, 4 September 2020, an award-winning ceremony was held at the Czech Academy of Sciences for the best books published by the publishing house Academia. A total of 59 books were long listed in the 12^th year of the prestigious awards in six categories. A committee consisting of ten experts and chaired by Professor Ivo Kraus selected The Czech Historical Atlas – Chapters from the History of the 20^th Century as the winner of the Original Science or Popular Science Publications category.

The atlas depicts the flow of history in space and time through printed maps processed by state-of-the art digital cartography. Unlike similar maps available online, the atlas offers a more user-friendly approach and many printouts. The publication was created by 29 authors from 4 universities and the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Science. It is one of the first atlases that has been designed and processed exclusively by digital cartography through a cooperation of experts from many fields.

“I am glad to have been able to employ my experience from similar previous projects, such as the project for the Historical Geography Research Centre, which initiated cooperation between geographers and historians, the work on the Historical Towns Atlas or my experience as geographer of tourism and social-economic geographer. What I found particularly enriching was the cooperation between experts from various, ostensibly rather distant fields,” Tomáš Burda explains his involvement in the award-winning atlas project. His main contribution to the atlas included maps of churches and religious denominations, settlements and inhabitants, industry, transport and agriculture, as well as a map of Czech cultural and scientific achievements that have left their mark in the world. He has created a total of 30 maps and written the accompanying texts to them. His work represents almost 11% of the entire publication. “The atlas is the outcome of a longstanding cooperation under the NAKI II project of the Ministry of Culture called The Czech Historical Atlas, which is the spiritual successor of the Academic Atlas of Czech History. The new project focused on the history of the 20^th century,” Dr. Burda adds.    

Nonetheless, the Academia Publishing Award was not the only award bestowed on the authors of the atlas. Earlier this year, the Czech Cartographic Society organised the 22^nd Map of the Year annual contest. At its meeting in June, the expert committee reviewed the registered cartographic works published in the Czech Republic in 2019. A total of 92 products competed for the title Map of the Year, as well as 18 authors from all over the Czech Republic and 18 student cartographers from five universities. There were five categories. The Czech Historical Atlas won first prize in the main category Atlases, Map Collections and Editions. 

The Czech Historical Atlas also won the award given by the Czech Academy of Sciences for extraordinary research, experimental development and innovation. Due to the current pandemics, the authors could not accept the award in person, but if the situation permits, they should be able to do so in Spring 2021.