Highlights from "Mapping a Nation"

This past Saturday I got to see Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The Museum space is small but they packed a lot into that space including maps, surveying instruments, original notes from the Lewis & Clark expedition and printing plates. The introductory text has some interesting takes on the history of the 18th and 19th Centuries describing maps as "battlegrounds" between European empires, Native Americans and colonists. "Even as mapmakers sought to represent a connected and united citizenry, maps reinforced the exclusion of many groups from full participation in the new nation."

Here is a plate from a history of the Lewis & Clark expedition. As usual with these exhibitions, apologies for the light reflections and inability to take better photographs.

A circa 1750 map by John Bartram shows the location of sea shell specimens he collected in the Appalachian Mountains, suggesting that the region was once underwater. He apologizes that the map is "clumsily done, -having neither proper instruments nor convenient time."

Here are a couple of maps of the Susquehanna River area of central Pennsylvania from 1757 originally drawn in chalk by Teedyuscung, a Lenape negotiator during a council in Easton, Pa. where several tribes agreed not to side with the French against the British in return for a promise that the British would not settle west of the Appalachians.

A detail from a map of Maryland and Virginia, 1775.

For credits, here is the cartouche.

There are  a couple of very detailed maps of Haiti during the time of the rebellions around 1799-1801. The United States intervened on behalf of the Haitians in order to protect U.S. trade. Unfortunately I did not make a note of the map's author or date.

The area around Jacmel where much of the fighting took place.

Finally, "Map of the Columbia to illustrate Ross's Adventures" just because I like the little singular puffy mountains.

The exhibit runs until December 29th and includes a three day conference in October.

La Jolla Map Museum - Maps of Historical Interest

Last month I visited the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla. They have an impressively large collection of original maps and many of them are of significant historical importance.

For example, here is one of the earliest recorded maps - baked onto a clay tablet.

Photo taken at the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla

It shows a parcel of land with ownership and dimensions in cuneiform. On the back are field measurements. This could be a legal document or may have been used as a teaching tool for surveying.

Here is a world map by Antonio Floriano (ca. 1555) using polar projections from the north and south poles. I took most of the following pictures on a phone so try to ignore the glare and reflections. Where possible I will provide links to better images online.

Photos taken at the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla

Each hemisphere is divided into 36 globe gores and therefore it was likely to have been designed for making globes. A better image can be found at The Vintage Map Shop. Here is some detail from the eastern Mediterranean.

A very different world map from a similar era (1581) is Heinrich Bünting's World Map.

Photo taken at the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla

This is a figurative map meant to represent biblical geography with the cloverleaf shape possibly reflecting the Trinity. A colored version can be seen here.

Leo Belgicus maps.

An example of a Leo Belgicus via Wikipedia

These maps represent the "Low Countries" of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as a lion, partially because the most of the provinces of these countries featured lions on their coats of arms. I did not get a photo of the whole map so I used an online example above. I did, however get a nice detailed close up.

Photo taken at the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla

I love the way the Rhine and Meuse Rivers flow over the paw like blood vessels. The paw scratching at "Colln" (Cologne) is a nice touch.

Here is a detail from Map of the Caribbean (Spanish Main) by Peter Martyr, 1511. Martyr was a friend to Columbus and the other explorers of the era. This is the first printed map devoted to the Americas. Martyr was also the first to have used the concept of a "western hemisphere" though he was not sure whether the mainland areas of South America were attached to India or not. Derived from confidential Spanish sources, it was very accurate for the time and also may have landed him in some trouble. The same year, King Ferdinand outlawed giving maps to foreigners.

Photo taken at the Map & Atlas Museum of La Jolla

I love the exaggerated detail of the coastlines.

More to come in a future post - stay tuned!

Map of the Week-Haiti Quake Maps

I don't like to gawk at natural disasters. However, yesterday's earthquake in Haiti is so horrific that's it's a tough one to ignore. The U. S. Geological Survey's PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response) has some useful maps and graphics to illustrate the severity of the situation. Here are the most recent earthquakes on PAGER with the Haiti quake detailed.

Here are some maps from the PAGER's Haiti earthquake page. First, a graph showing the color codes.

 This is the "shakemap" showing the quake intensity. To the right, a list of the most affected cities using the same color codes.

 
Finally, a map showing population density (in gray) with the quake intensity shown as colored isolines.