Robert Walter Weir was one of the most popular instructors at West Point in the mid-1800s. Which is odd at a military academy, because he taught painting and drawing.

罗伯特·沃尔特·威尔在 19 世纪中期是西点军校最受欢迎的教师之一。这在军事学院有些奇怪，因为他教授的是绘画课程。

Weir’s art classes were mandatory at West Point. Art can broaden your perspective, but that wasn’t the point.

在西点军校，威尔的艺术课程是必修的。虽然艺术可以拓宽你的视野，但这并不是课程的目的。

Nineteenth-century West Point cadets needed to be good at drawing because cartography was in its infancy. High-quality maps of the United States – let alone, say, Mexico – were scarce, if they existed at all. Military officers were expected to draw maps on the fly and record a battlefield’s topography. It wasn’t a niche; it was vital to war. Weir’s favorite student, who passed the time at West Point drawing river bends and mountain ranges, was Ulysses S. Grant.

19 世纪时，西点军校的学员必须擅长绘画，因为当时制图技术刚刚起步。高质量的美国地图甚至包括像墨西哥这样的地方都很少见，即使有的话也是凤毛麟角。军官们被要求能够随时绘制地图，记录战场地形。这不仅仅是一项专业技能，而是战争中至关重要的能力。威尔最喜欢的学生是尤利西斯·S·格兰特，他在西点军校时常常利用空闲时间绘制河道和山脉。

West Point no longer offers drawing or painting classes. Its sole cartography course emphasizes mapping software and technology, as you might expect.

西点军校不再提供素描或绘画课程。唯一的制图课程主要关注地图软件和技术，这并不意外。