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Osborn Maitland Miller

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description Osborn Maitland Miller Overview

Osborn Maitland Miller (1897–1979) was an American cartographer who worked extensively with the American Geographical Society of New York. In 1942, he developed the Miller cylindrical projection as a practical visual compromise between the heavily distorted Mercator projection and equal-area alternative projections. This projection slightly modifies the Mercator formula to reduce the exaggerated size of polar regions, making it highly useful for general-purpose world maps and educational geography materials.

help Osborn Maitland Miller FAQ

How does the Miller cylindrical projection change the Mercator projection?

Miller's formula applies the Mercator treatment to four-fifths of the actual latitude and then rescales the result. This reduces the extreme vertical stretching seen near the poles on a Mercator world map.

Is the Miller cylindrical projection equal-area or conformal?

It is neither equal-area nor conformal. Osborn Maitland Miller designed it in 1942 as a visual compromise for general world maps, not as a projection that perfectly preserves area or local shape.

Can the Miller projection show the North and South Poles?

Yes, its poles appear as finite straight lines rather than receding to infinity as they do in the Mercator projection. Distortion is still severe at high latitudes, so polar regions should not be measured from it.