John P. Snyder

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John Parr Snyder (12 April 1926–28 April 1997) was an American cartographer most known for his work on map projections for the USGS. Educated at Purdue and MIT as a chemist, he had a lifetime interest in map projections as a hobby, but found the calculations tedious without the benefit of expensive calculators or computers. At a cartography conference in 1976, he learned of the need for a map projection that would suit the special needs of satellite imagery. He had recently been able to purchase a pocket calculator of his own and set to work creating what became known as the space-oblique mercator projection, which he provided to the USGS at no charge.

He was subsequently offered a job within the USGS within two years, where his work apparently led him to the eventual publication of the definitive technical guide to map projections entitled Map Projections: A Working Manual among other works. He also authored Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections which details the historical development of hundreds of map projections. Snyder developed at least one other projection, called GS50, which uses a complex polynomial to project the 50 U.S. states with minimal distortion. He was president of the American Cartographic Association from 1990-1991 and also served as a secretary to the Washington Map Society.

John Snyder died April 28, 1997.

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