History of the SCO

For years, Professor Arthur H. Robinson encouraged the Wisconsin State Legislature to establish the position of State Cartographer, and in 1974, Arthur L. Ziegler was the first to be appointed to the post. The State Cartographer's Office was established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and began operation in August 1974. The following January, the SCO published the first Wisconsin Mapping Bulletin, and only a few months later the first Catalog of Aerial Photography was produced. In 1978, the SCO added the County Cartographic Catalog to its list of publications.

These early catalogs were made by hand on light tables, and student workers spent many hours gluing down patterns, line tapes, and drafting templates with hot wax. In the late '80s, the SCO began to automate their publishing process, but the limited functions of early graphics software still made the job tough. For example, the various line widths, symbols, and pattern fills needed to make graphics for the catalog were not supported by the early software. The SCO's first fully automated catalog was produced in 1989.

With the introduction of an electronic bulletin board in 1994, the SCO joined the world of electronic publishing and communication. Two years later, the SCO's World Wide Web site debuted. Today much of the information contained in our regular publications also exists electronically on our web site.