Press cartography in Poland before the regaining of independence in 1918

W artykule omówiono tematykę, grafikę i autorstwo map w polskiej prasie codziennej oraz warunki ich pojawiania się w okresie przemian szaty graficznej gazet, przypadającym na pierwsze dwudziestolecie ubiegłego wieku.In the begining of the XXth century the Polish territories were still, as a result of Poland's partion, divided into three parts, which were annexed and controlled by the country's neighbors. Each part was submitted to the political, legal and economic systems of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, respectively. As a result of a partial abolishment of censorship and liberalization of press regulations - towards the end of the XIXth century in Galicia (Austrian part) and Greater Poland (Prusian part) and after 1908 in the Russian part - a rapid development of Polish press was possible. At that time daily newspapers became attractive graphically, due to a wider use of illustrations and maps. The first maps appeared in Polish newspapers towards the end of the XIXth century, They were very rare and unoriginal - mainly plans of exhibitions and maps reprinted from the press of the occupying countries. In the XXth century they became more common, but still sporadic - one, two or four maps a year. Their topics ranged from the war in Transvaal and the Chinese uprising to plans of new buildings, fragments of cities, international exhibitions, routes and transportation connections. These also appeared first maps of cataclysms and natural disasters. The number of maps rose at the time of armed conflicts, e.g. during the wars in the Far East (in 1904, 1905 and 1911). They were reference maps, either with rich contents and often even relief, or very simplified. They supplemented the descriptions of warfare or "War reports" and "Telegraph News". Maps showing army positions were less frequent. A rapid growth in the number of maps in daily newspapers came with the beginning of the World War I. They illustrated news from the war theater. Publicly awaited news and enormous interest in press as the main source of information multiplied the circulation and number of daily editions of many newspapers. At the beginning of the war most dailies published several tens of maps a year; towards the end their number usually went down. Maps, which proved essential in presenting information about the current situation on the frontiers came from different sources. Usually they were chorographic maps drawn for a particular purpose. There also appeared maps, which presented specific war operations. Newspapers, which could not afford to prepare or buy proper maps usually printed primitive sketches. Maps were prepared by specialized agencies. In Polish press, especially in Poznan, but also in Galicja, one could often find maps from Antoni Fiedler's, which were the biggest chemigraphic works in Greater Poland. Maps prepared by ASTA, a German agency were also common. Some newspapers reprinted maps from German and austrian press. Occasionally the legend of the map was not even translated, but only explained below or in the text. Maps , which appeared in Polish press in the first two decades of the twentieth century represented various graphical level. The maps edited by specialized foreign agencies and those prepared by Antoni Fiedler's works were relatively advanced. The maps of foreign agencies had a serious flaw - they used names different from those in the accompanying texts (subtitles, explanations) and press articles