Here to There: A History of Mapping
Rambles Through Our Country — An Instructive Geographical Game for the Young, 1890.
From the 16th to 18th centuries, many European mapmakers were convinced that California was an island — an Edenic paradise populated by black Amazons. The error persisted for over a hundred years after expeditions had proven that California was, in fact, firmly attached to the mainland. The idea of California as a fierce paradise appealed to Europeans, who were reluctant to let the mundane reality interfere with their vision of the world.
So in that spirit, we’re devoting this episode of BackStory to maps — asking what they show us about who we are and and where we want to go. How do maps shape the way we see our communities and our world? What do they tell us about the kind of information we value? And what do they distort, or ignore?
Please help us shape this show! Share your questions, ideas and stories below. Have opinions on New York vs. D.C. subway maps? On the merits or shortcomings of Google Maps? And do you even still use old-fashioned, ink-and-paper maps? Leave us a comment!
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Here to There: A History of Mapping | BackStory with the American History Guys :
[...] the listener comments that helped shape this [...]
Quote -- August 10, 2012 @ 3:29 pm
Maps of presettlement vegetation have been reconstructed from early surveyor notes. One such map of Minnesota was done by Francis Marschner in the late 1920′s. It provides a reference point to show the degree of in terrestrial ecosystems since the 1850-1890′s.
Quotehttp://discussions.mnhs.org/collections/2008/09/marschner-map-of-original-vegetation/
Other methods, e.g. pollen analysis of lake sediment cores, can be used to reconstruct paleovegetation maps. http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nercNORTHAMERICA.html
These maps provide a basis for reconstructing ecosystems we’ve lost and for predicting ecosystems we will see again as climate change continues to alter the planet.
in line 3 should read” …. degree of change in…..
QuoteWhat about the concept of maps as tools of war and peace? The information on maps often dictated who fought, died, and won wars. They also allow us to draw invisible, artificial lines of weighty human impact (The Missouri Compromise, or the 38th Parallel). In the novel Catch-22, the self-serving protagonist Yossarian covertly shifts the frontline on the map at headquarters, relieving his squadron of the responsibility of flying a dangerous mission.
Check out my band’s imagery involving a Civil War era map:
Quotehttp://f0.bcbits.com/z/38/53/3853234054-1.jpg
You should also contact Prof. John Porter or Kelly Johnston, two UVA experts on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)–digital, interactive maps.
QuoteAlso, my personal interest in maps began as a Boy Scout, backpacking in New Mexico and learning basic orienteering skills.
QuoteI’ve spent 30 years traveling the country by myself, and still rely solely on paper maps in the car, no GPS or Smartphone…though I supplement them by consulting Mapquest directions, and construction updates, before I leave home.
But in all those years I’ve only gotten lost a few times (usually because I was tempted to take the scenic route) and never for very long. In fact, sometimes when I’ve “gotten lost” I found something I didn’t even know I was looking for.
QuoteThe statement that California was misunderstood by early map-makers reminded me of a mapping story that I heard while living in Bolivia, South America. Apparently British map-makers left Bolivia off their maps, even after Bolivia had gained independence, labelling the entire area “Peru”. Interesting article.
QuoteMaybe part of California *was* an island, and the San Andreas fault recently closed up.
QuoteEnlightenment rationalists wanted to impose a geometric framework on maps. During the French Revolution, there were plans for départements based on latitude and longitude, but these were abandoned.
On the contrary, in America, they became the rule, and in my home state of Michigan the east-west and north-south roads proudly ignore hills and valley, and only regretfully skirt lakes. The whole story of settlement and understanding the land seems based on this grid system, with the alternate land grants along the railway concessions, the system of school sections, the patterns of farmland, state borders, etc
How did this system impose itself? How does the contrast between natural features and trails and the grid evolve and influence settlement and an understanding of the land?
QuoteI would be curious to learn more about the economics of mapping. It seems a supreme example of a public good, but what has the government’s involvement in mapping been? What has been the relationship between government and private industry? For example today we rely on GPS, which is a government-provided service, but we use tools made by the private sector to take advantage of it.
QuoteI’d also like to hear about conflicts induced by mapping disputes, like those between the US and the UK over the US-Canadian border, but also those between states, like the Toledo strip. And I remember hearing about a conflict between Georgia and Tennessee which remains active today.
QuoteI’m struck by the persistent deformation of voting, social, political aspects of America when information is presented on a standard map. For all data related to population, we generally get a very distorted view, with those big empty states in the middle appearing to have more impact than they do, or deserve. A big red square for Wyoming is given the visual importance of all of New England, while its population wouldn’t rate as even a middling city in the Northeast.
QuoteWhat is the impact of this visual representation on the way Americans think? What efforts have been made to portray the reality of America free from this distortion?
I always thought the economic implications went back to questions of Empire – if you had the nautical maps, you had the power to get to new markets, etc.
In present day issues maps are important ways of showing what the maker or his/her funding source wants the consumer of the map to see. I’m thinking about the disagreement a few years ago concerning a change to an official Argentine map that laid claim to land that was part of a disputed and unresolved border with Chile in Patagonia. http://en.mercopress.com/2010/05/20/argentina-revives-long-time-border-dispute-with-chile-in-patagonian-ice-fields In the US our national borders are presented as solid and unchanging – do we have similar instability and undefined areas?
I know that in my geography classes in the late twentieth century, maps were presented as fact and generally unchanging, despite the fact that we’d periodically get new textbooks – I remember getting a new social studies textbook after the breakup of the USSR and being fascinated by all of the new countries on the map. That process itself and the way it was reflected in those maps was never addressed, though – maps were still used in my classrooms as non-changing absolute representations of political power or geographical truth.
That said: I wonder what one can say about the popular conception that maps are objective reflections of reality? Particularly from a historical and a humanistic perspective, how do modern ways of making maps (the limited parameters of computer programming, things like ArcGIS etc) interact with popular understandings of the information that they give? Are we as a society losing the ability to read maps accurately and critically?
QuoteHow did the political use of maps change through the Teddy/Gifford Progressive era?
i.e. – before and after the invention of public lands?
QuoteOh, Oh!
Also, please touch on Charles Wilkes and the US Exploring Expedition. How the US, the South American coast, the South Pacific islands, the Discovery of Antarctica and the Columbia River were all accomplished on that crazy expedition. Also, how the artifacts culled during the mission were used to create the Smithsonian.
QuoteMaps get to property boundaries, which get to both the history of land surveying and — a live issue right now regarding the _water_ in the Jackson River in western VA, BTW — how property rights in a particular parcel in some respects depend on the description of the boundaries and the (sometimes extraordinary) rights within them when ownership changes hands.
QuoteIn ancient ages (1958-61), i was a geology-geography major. One of the things that has stuck in my head, through three subsequent majors, is that we need to watch water. “It might become the cause of World War III.” Kashmir, Iraq, Southern California, and sub-Saharan Africa were particularly to be watched.
We also learned about the differences in the way water rights were established in the eastern U.S. vs. the west. Were water rights noted on 18th and 19th century maps? When did counties first map properties for taxes — or were taxes based upon property sales and inheritance until sometime in the 20th century.
QuoteHow does dead reckoning work? I’ve heard the story that Lewis and Clark mapped their journey with dead reckoning and ended up something like 2 feet off the actual distance. How is this possible? Most people can’t even estimate the size of the rooms they live in, right?
Give us the real story please!
QuoteI love the idea that most people think of maps as objective, when really they are quite subjective. It is easy to manipulate a map to encourage the reader to come away with a particular perception of the information shown. For example, a city mayor may make a map of how security has increased during his/her term in office by creating map to highlight a decrease in petty theft, while his/her opponent could create an opposing map that shows an increase in violent crime.
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