Fuller, R. Buckminster
1954

Dymaxion Airocean World Map Raleigh edition signed in manuscript by Fuller.

Dymaxion Airocean World the Raleigh Edition of Fuller Projection. R. Buckminster Fuller & Shoji Sadao, Cartographers.

DESCRIPTION: 

Scarce original offset-lithographed Dymaxion Airocean World map by R. Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao [1]. From the "Raleigh Edition", (1954) of 3,000 copies. Red stamped sheet number "0138". Published by the Student Publications of the School of Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. Verso blank.

R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion map projection is a method of projecting the spherical Earth onto a folded twenty-sided polyhedron known as an icosahedron. Fuller intended the map to be unfolded in different ways to emphasize different aspects of the world. This Dymaxion map displays mean annual low temperature.

An earlier version of Fuller's projection based on a cuboctahedron was featured in the March 1, 1943 edition of Life magazine. Titled “Life Presents R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World”, the article included a pull-out section that could be assembled as a three-dimensional model.

Manuscript dedication to Carroll Williams signed "Buckminster Fuller" dated to June 1, 1956. From 1951-1954 Carroll Williams taught graphic arts at Black Mountain College, then in Black Mountain, NC Carroll collaborated with Buckminster Fuller on Geodesics, Inc. in Raleigh, NC during 1956-1957.

At bottom right is a pasted label with the return address for A.H. Fuller at 3013 Hillsboro Street. Here, A.H. Fuller is Fuller's wife Anne Hewlett Fuller d. 1983.

Includes a second large sheet with explanatory diagrams and text explaining the Dymaxion Airocean World Fuller Projective-transformation. U.S. Patent 2,393,676.

[1] Shoji Sadao (1927- 2019) Cartographer for the United States Army during WWII. Met Buckminster Fuller in the early 1950's while studying architecture at Cornell. Collaborated with Fuller in Raleigh, NC to draw the Dymaxion Airocean World map in 1954.

Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)


"Call me trimtab." It was the epitaph R. Buckminster Fuller wanted. Fuller believed that as an inventor, teacher, and architect he could have a large effect on problems like climate change through small carefully applied actions. [1]

After entering Harvard University in 1913 Fuller was dismissed for "excessively socializing" and missing his mid-term exams. Despite this early setback, Fuller went on to a long career where he was recognized as a brilliant future-oriented inventor and thinker. Fuller's early inventions included an aircraft retrieval winch for the U.S. Navy and a method of producing reinforced concrete buildings. He went on to invent the "4D house" later branded the "Dymaxion House", a combination of the words "dynamic," "maximum," and "tension". Fuller's design for the house envisioned a sustainable, mass-produced structure supported by a central column.

Fuller invented the three-wheeled Dymaxion Car, the Geodesic Dome, and a new map projection the Dymaxion Airocean World" map, based on an a 20-sided polygon- an icosahedron.

In March 1943, Life Magazine published a photographic essay titled "Life Presents R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World". The article included a pull-out section that could be assembled as a "three-dimensional approximation of a globe or laid out as a flat map, ... rearranged to illuminate special aspects of its geography." That issue became Life's best-selling issue to that date.

The 1954 version of Fuller's projection made with co-cartographer Shoji Sadao, the Dymaxion Airocean World Map "Raleigh edition", used a modified icosahedron as the base for the projection, which is the version most commonly referred to today. This version depicts the Earth's continents as "one island".

[1] Online. Buckminster Fuller Institute. https://www.bfi.org/

CREATOR: Fuller, R. Buckminster

PUBLICATION DATE: 1954

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: World

BODY OF WATER: All

CONDITION: Very Good.  On a full sheet of coated paper. No folds. Generous margins as issued. No major condition issues. Small scattered brown spots from handling.

COLORING: Lithographed colors.

ENGRAVER: 

SIZE: 33 " x 20 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 150

PRICE: $6250

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