This extraordinary persuasive map depicting a Square and Stationary Earth was issued in 1895 by Orlando Ferguson, early “Flat Earth” proponent of the modern era.

The image

The image depicts the world as a vast, square block, with the map of the Earth’s surface as a depression in this block and angels at each of the four corners. The projection is most unusual, being a sort of circular projection with the North Pole at the center atop a convex western hemisphere, surrounded by a concave eastern hemisphere.

To the right of the central image is a small vignette cartoon which mocks the “globe theory” by showing the Earth hurtling through space with two men holding on for dear life. At left is a portrait of Ferguson himself in bearded splendor.

At the base of the image are a number of scriptural quotations intended to support the unusual cosmology depicted on the map. Some choice bits include: “The world also shall be stable that it be not moved.—Chron. 16:30” and “The four corners of the earth.—Isaiah 30:1.” An advertisement at lower right suggests that for 25 cents more, one can receive a copy of a book by Ferguson which “Knocks the Globe Theory Clean Out” and “is Worth Its Weight in Gold.” This likely refers to Ferguson’s The Latest Discoveries in Astronomy: The Globe Theory of the Earth Refuted (1891).

Background

Aside from their central assertion about the shape of the Earth, flat-earth proponents adopt a geocentric cosmology in which a stationary earth is the focal point of an orbiting cosmos. This now-eccentric outlook has a long and distinguished history in the West, extending back to the Bible, through Aristotle and Ptolemy and on to Tycho Brahe in the 16th century. It was only with the work of Copernicus in the early 16th century that advocates of a stationary earth began to lose their hold on the European mind.

Despite the overwhelming empirical evidence against them these views have never completely died out, though they have retreated into the darker recesses of American culture. The modern “movement,” if it may be called that, is badly fragmented, with some segments arguing their point from a purely biblical perspective, while others exploit an array of pseudo-scientific evidence. Even today the Association for Biblical Astronomy (founded in 1971 as the Tychonian Society) holds conferences and publishes The Biblical Astronomer. The curious may visit their web site and purchase holiday gifts at the Tycho Brahe shop. Still more engaging, perhaps, is the web site of the better-known Flat Earth Society.

This writer has been able to learn but little about Mssr. Ferguson . On the present map he described himself as a professor (of what, one wonders?) resident in Hot Springs, South Dakota. He was clearly a true believer, though, as OCLC informs us that in addition to The Latest Discoveries he also wrote The Square World: Why People Are Being Deceived on Astronomy and Religion (1897), as well as publishing the short-lived monthly The Square World (1895-96). He was sufficiently prominent that the Omaha [Nebraska] World Herald saw fit to needle him with a lampooning article in which a semi-literate Ferguson argues for his views “I am a wair it takes some nerve and backboon to condem a therry practest by the whole world of ever nation, but nevertheless I am compelled to do it from the fact that I know the globe therry is not true which I can prove it in many wayes…”[1]

In at least some Flat Earth circles, Ferguson’s advocacy of a square and stationary earth seems to meet with respect if not complete approval:

“As I mentioned in a comment on a mailbag message I received in a previous year, Professor Ferguson correctly placed the flat(ish) Earth on a square surface, and placed angels at each of the four corners, but timidly failed to stretch the surface of the Earth to cover the entire square. His picture is basically a circular Earth with four inaccessible corners sticking out. He does not seem to have had a Biblical basis for this odd decision.”[2]

References

This writer knows of but two other examples of this print, held by the Library of Congress and the Pioneer Museum in Hot Springs, South Dakota. It is illustrated in the Wikipedia entry for “modern geocentricism,” which provided background for this article.

[1] “Denies the Globe Theory: Orlando Ferguson Proceeds to Prove that the Earth Is Square,” Omaha World Herald, published as Sunday World-Herald, vol. XXVI no. 229 (May 24, 1891), p. 8.

[2] Roger Wilcox of the Flat Earth Society, in an editorial comment to a 2007 email submitted to the Society’s web site.