«EN EL SENDERO GLORIOSO DE LA CIENCIA UNIVERSAL». LA CARTE INTERNATIONALE DU MONDE 1:1.000.000, LA CARTE DU CIEL Y LA PRÁCTICA DE REPRESENTACIÓN DEL TERRITORIO ARGENTINO, 1890-1920

In 1908 it was established the One Millionth Scale World Map at the International Geographical Congress in Genove. The main goal of this international entreprise was the publication of a world map designed upon common criterion. Argentine join this project the following year. At the same time, the Director of the Paris' Obervatory and some members of the French Bureau des Longitudes had been working on a photographic celestial map since 1887, recruting collaborations from all around the globe. Both projects should be inscribed within the context of the international competition to impose forms to build an «universal» framework for the space which must be useful for diplomacy and also for territorial conquests and the military attacks. The various disputes arisen as part of these international projects have impacted on the Argentine Geographic Institute —and later in the Military Geographic Institute— and also on the Observatory of La Plata. Local developments reveal aspects of an ample range of difficulties concerning the definition of public policiy for sciences. Also, these conflicts express the complex interactions between the institutions engaged to the celestial and terrestrial representation in the Argentina of end of 19th Century and early 20th Century.