Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888)
Meteorology is a quest of discovery, the challenge of boldly exploring where no one has gone before. That is the appeal and rhetorically durable theme which has made this woodcut so appealing.
Many who have reprinted this illustration through the years have not recognized that it first appeared in a popular work on meteorology. Often misattributed to the Middle Ages or Renaissance, this book is its original source. Flammarion was an astronomer and popular science writer who worked at the Juvissy Observatory in Paris.
A version colorized by Susanna J. Magruder is available.
Although many attribute this iconic image to the Middle Ages, it first appeared in a 19th century work of meteorology. So it’s fitting that this book opened a Galileo’s World exhibit at the National Weather Center on Copernicus and Meteorology.
Ever wish there were a colorized version available in a suitable resolution which educators and anyone could freely use? Susanna J. Magruder created the colorized version of Flammarion’s woodcut shown above, which she is distributing with a CC-by license. Enjoy! You can put it on your website, a t-shirt, a coffee mug, or print out a copy on quality paper for your wall.
Two decades ago, in 1996, Susanna’s father Kerry Magruder prepared a small website telling the story of the above woodcut and tracing its first appearance to Camille Flammarion in 1888. That old website remains available, largely unchanged (and frequently copied around the web): “This is not a medieval woodcut.” It explores the image as visual rhetoric, concluding that its enduring appeal lies not so much in the flat Earth myth but as an icon of our common quest of discovery and exploration, the challenge of “boldly going where no one has gone before.”
Black and white version: Color your own.
Related OER: “Boldly Explore” Learning Leaflet.
Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888), p. 163. Colorized by Susanna J. Magruder. Courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries. CC-by.
