Due to the independence of Indonesia in 1949 (1945) the western part of New Guinea suddenly became the sole representation of The Netherlands in this region. Whereas school wall maps of Netherlands New Guinea were non-existent before 1950, after that they were the only kind of school wall map of the region published.
 



J.B. Wolters, one of the leading publishers in The Netherlands of school books and maps, based in Groningen but since 1920 also in Batavia (Djakarta), was the first to respond to the growing demand for maps of Netherlands New Guinea. In 1953 Wolters published the ‘Schetskaart van Ned. Nieuw Guinea’ (see Figure 9). Though Wolters was one of the few publishers with an own ‘Cartografisch Instituut’, in 1953 this wall map had to be produced by the ‘Topografische Dienst’. Unsurveyed regions are indicated by white areas on the map, a feature which is very uncharacteristic of school wall maps. Furthermore, the large number of details is characteristic of ‘Topografische Dienst’ maps, but usually undesirable on a school wall map.
 


In 1956, however, Wolters published a school wall map of Netherlands New Guinea, which was entirely ‘home-baked’ (see Figure 10). In every respect this is a very professionally made and functional school wall map: a modest amount of cartographic information, a vivid representation of the relief, up-to-date and a high map fidelity. Understandably, economic aspects are omitted on this general map. However, (primary) schools could obtain a thematic school wall map titled ‘Ned. Nieuw Guinea’ from Dijkstra (see Figure 11), a publisher of a very successful socio-economic geography method of Bakker and Rusch, which uses child-friendly economic pictorial symbols [6]. The administrative transfer of the western part of New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963 definitely ended the Dutch presence in the region, and as a consequence abruptly made the school wall maps of Netherlands New Guinea useless and worthless.