The ICA’s official newsletter is 58 years old! In a report from the 1st General Assembly of ICA, published in the Internationales Jahrbuch für Kartographie (Band 1, 1961, pp 195-199), we can find the following note:
Every member-nation presented a report on its cartographic activity. These reports, certain other papers and addresses will be published in an I.C.A. Bulletin, which is to be edited by Professor Gigas.
Indeed, a year later Erwin Gigas, then Secretary General and Treasurer, edited and published the first two ICA Bulletins. A further two issues were released in 1963 and, as it turned out, these would be the last newsletters published exclusively by the ICA for another 20 years.
Thanks to Anja Hopfstock and Monika Sester (Germany) who provided us with digital copies, we can learn that the first two issues were devoted to the 1st ICA General Assembly held in Paris. Bulletin No 1 contained forewords, greetings, an opening address, and notes on the creation of the ICA. The main feature though was the full text of the Statutes of the International Cartographic Association adopted in Paris. Bulletin No 2 was entirely devoted to National Reports received from 23 national members at the General Assembly.
ICA Bulletins No 3 and 4 served as proceedings from the 1st Technical Conference of the ICA held in Frankfurt am Main, 10-15 September 1962, containing 27 papers. The conference focused on the problems of Generalization and Revision of Maps and was attended by more than 100 participants from 19 countries.