The Ohio University Athens Ohio

The whole world centered on Athens, Ohio.

This geographic celebration and commemoration of Ohio University was created by Catherine McQuaid Steiner and published by the University’s cartographic center in 1983. A custom azimuthal equidistant projection shows the world focused on the city of Athens, Ohio (home of the university), providing a unique global perspective on the Midwest college.

Its architecture, as well as the fauna of Ohio, is highlighted in the vignettes immediately surrounding the map. Portraits of the founders and various presidents comprise the decorative border.

Ohio University was the first such educational facility to be chartered by an Act of Congress as part of the Northwest Ordinance, an excerpt from which can be read at the bottom of the map. “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”