The digital gallery

An exhibit of title pages from the collection of Rich Breiman.

These 17th century maps, while beautiful and informative, are enhanced by vignettes that depict inhabitants in their native costumes from areas included on the maps as well as city maps or biblical scenes. From the collection of Rich Breiman.

These colossi are cartographic curiosities as they were included along with two other images of colossal figures in Matthaus Seutter’s Atlas Novus published in 1728 and 1730. Four additional maps from this atlas are included in the exhibit because of their elaborate and artistic cartouches.

Matthaus Seutter the elder (1678-1757) was an engraver, globe maker and map publisher based in Augsburg, Germany. He apprenticed with Johann Baptist Homann in Nuremberg and was awarded the title of Imperial Geographer by Karl VI in 1731. By 1732, Seutter was one of the most prolific publishers of his time and was honored by the German Emperor Charles VI with the title of “Imperial Geographer”. He continued to publish until his death in 1757.

From the collection of Rich Breiman.

Various maps and engravings that were among the illustrations included in the publications of Captain Cook's journals that served as a first hand account of the experiences of Cook and the crew on each of his three 18th century voyages. These voyages resulted in monumental discoveries of previous unknown lands, people, animals and plants. They were responsible for changing conceptions off the world, particularly the Pacific Ocean from Australia to North America. The official British Admiralty authorized journal publications in total include 8 volumes of text, maps and engravings (3 volumes for the 1st and 3rd voyages and 2 volumes for the 2nd voyage and an atlas of engravings that accompanied the journal of the 3rd voyage).

From the collection of Rich Breiman.

This exhibit was first presented by Jim Schein and Tom Paper on April 18, 2019, at the offices of Webster Pacific in downtown San Francisco. The date, April 18, was the anniversary of the great earthquake and fire of 1906. The exhibit was a pop-up, which meant that it was put up and taken down within a span of six hours. Every image was printed and mounted onto a posterboard and then rested on a portable easel. The exhibit remains available as a popup for venues that have 150 lineal feet of wall-space.

Appointed by Emperor Napoleon III in 1853, Seine Prefect and city planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809-1891) reconfigured the map of France’s capital into the ‘city of light’ we celebrate today. The Digital Gallery is pleased to offer the exhibit Paris Transformed as part of the California Map Society's annual conference which took place on 25 April 2020. Here you can explore maps and images related to Paris during its transformation under the regimes of the Second Empire (1852-1870) and Third Republic (1870-1940). Curated by C. Spikes.

During the first two, precarious years of the American Revolution, the outcome was often in doubt. The Digital Gallery is pleased to present the exhibit, “George Washington and the American Revolution, 1775-1776,” to chronicle these critical times through historic maps, iconic paintings, and explanatory text. Here you can explore the maps and images related to both the defeats and eventual victories of these campaigns.

See Ron Gibbs' historical novel about George Washington and the American Revolution, The Long Shot.

October 2021: “Terrain and Tactics, British War Plan of 1776,” new article by Ronald Gibbs, Courtney Spikes and Thomas Paper. British General William Howe’s “War Plan illustrates the dichotomy of…[his]…tactical brilliance and his characteristic delays that thwarted his ultimate success. In contrast, General Washington was able to maintain the integrity of his army and keep the cause of American independence alive despite his initial defeats” (excerpt from the article). The article was published on-line in Journal of the American Revolution on October 12, 2021. To read the article, click here.

See video of Ron's February 2021 presentation to the Washington Map Society here.

See pdf of Ron's October 2020 presentation to San Francisco Map Fair here.

This exhibit is of Ortelius, his atlases and his concentration on the Holy Land and its surroundings. From the collection of Leonard and Juliet Rothman, which can be found at Stanford University SearchWorks. Exhibit launched January 2, 2021.

description

All of the images to be presented at the Bay Area Map (BAM) Group meeting, hosted virtually, July 25, 2020.

17 images about The Carta Marina of 1516, by Martin Waldseemuller, most famous for a map called "America's Birth Certificate." Based on a talk by Chet Van Duzer from May 2020.

Library of Congress images here.
Watch Chet Van Duzer’s entire talk from May 2020 on YouTube here.
Read the announcement about Chet Van Duzer’s talk here.
Read Tom Paper’s summary of the talk here.
Read about Martin Waldseemuller here.

>>>Link here for a November 20, 2020 talk given by Van Duzer about an unstudied map of the world from 1535. Sponsored by NYU.

Welcome to our special exhibit for San Francisco Giants Enterprises Maritime, following the route of the California Spirit cruise around the San Francisco Bay, starting and ending at Pier 40, the marina closest to the ballpark.

If you'd like to book a cruise or for information on other experiences, please contact: info@giantsenterprises.com or call 415-947-3200 or visit https://giantsenterprises.com/yacht-charters/.

All of the images presented at the Greater Los Angeles Area Map (GLAM) group meeting, hosted virtually, August 22, 2020.

Chat from the meeting:

This exhibit describes how to use The Digital Gallery. If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email Tom Paper or Courtney Spikes.

An exhibit about Jo Mora's travels in Yosemite and the corresponding map and its variations. This exhibit was created in September 2020 by Peter Hiller, Jo Mora Trust Collection Curator, and Tom Paper and Courtney Spikes. More information about Jo Mora is available at www.jomoratrust.com.

Images from an atlas by one of Britain's most famous cartographers of the 18th century from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

"Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (August 16, 1650 – December 9, 1718) was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice. Vincenzo Coronelli was born, probably in Venice, on August 16, 1650, the fifth child of a Venetian tailor named Maffio Coronelli. At ten, young Vincenzo was sent to the city of Ravenna and was apprenticed to a xylographer. In 1663 he was accepted into the Conventual Franciscans, becoming a novice in 1665. At age sixteen he published the first of his one hundred forty separate works. In 1671 he entered the Convent of Saint Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, and in 1672 Coronelli was sent by the order to the College of Saint Bonaventura and Saints Apostoli in Rome where he earned his doctor’s degree in theology in 1674. He excelled in the study of both astronomy and Euclid. A little before 1678, Coronelli began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter (c. 175 cm) and so impressed the Duke that he made Coronelli his theologian. Coronelli's renown as a theologian grew and in 1699 he was appointed Father General of the Franciscan order."

David Rumsey

Wikipedia

Coronelli Globes at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Francois Mitterand Library

Article on Coronelli from Academia.edu

various maps of interest

Images and recordings of the presentations at the California Map Society Virtual Conference, session 1, held on October 10, 2020.

Images and recordings of the presentations at the California Map Society Virtual Conference, session 2, held on October 24, 2020.

An exhibit of maps made by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge of cities.

Wikipedia

Harvard

Calafia v. 2020 no. 2 (September 2020)

Historical images for HUMN 4030 Art of Travel, Giulia Bernardini.

Examines the art of travel: not where to go and what to do, but rather philosophical concepts about why people travel. Areas of discussion will include exploration, discovery, escape, pilgrimage, the grand tour, expatriotism, exile, nomadism, armchair travel, and the sense of home. Materials will include books by travel writers, novels, films, essays, short stories, art, music, and historical documents.

University of Colorado

curated text

Text from David Rumsey: "The Klencke Atlas resides at the British Library and we are grateful to them for providing scanned images of the atlas and complete catalog metadata as part of a joint project to scan and catalog the maps and atlases from the low countries of Europe that are part of the King George III Topographical Collections.

The Klencke Atlas is one of the world's biggest: it measures 176 x 231 cm when open.

It takes its name from Joannes Klencke, who presented it to Charles II on his restoration to the British thrones in 1660. Its size and its 40 or so large wall maps from the Golden Age of Dutch mapmaking were supposed to suggest that it contained all the knowledge in the world.

At another level, it was a bribe intended to spur the King into granting Klencke and his associates trading privileges and titles.

Charles, who was a map enthusiast, appreciated the gift. He placed the atlas with his most precious possessions in his cabinet of curiosities, and Klencke was knighted.

Later generations have benefited too. The binding has protected the wall maps which have survived for us to enjoy - unlike the vast majority of other wall maps which, exposed to light, heat and dirt when hung on walls, have crumbled away.

Titled 'Orbis Terræ Compendium, Carolo Secundo dedicatum a I. Kliencke. i.e. a Collection of Maps by Blaeu, Hondius, Visscher, &c. One Volume 5 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 2 inches."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/massive-...

Text from David Rumsey: "Richard Harrison produced in this remarkable atlas a unique view of the world for the "Air-age globalism" - a discursive phenomenon throughout the development of World War II that accounted for the rapid “shrinking” of the world through air technologies and the internationalization of American interests. Cartography became air-age globalism’s primary popular expression, and journalistic cartographers such as Richard Edes Harrison at Fortune magazine introduced new mapping projections and perspectives in response to the global changes."

description

During the 19th and 20th centuries, cities’ local chambers of commerce and other civic organizations prepared and sponsored their own maps as ways to advertise the existing commercial activity. Pictorial maps are also known as "illustrated maps, panoramic maps, perspective maps, bird's-eye view maps, and geopictorial maps." This style of map commonly uses a 3-D perspective and heightened angle, typically not drawn to scale. Wikipedia

"Somewhat like the websites of their time, every town sought to have one [panoramic map] to remain competitive in attracting industry and the immigrant trade. Sometimes artistic exaggeration bordered on the fraudulent, as some travelers were drawn by images of idyllic, bustling towns with humming factories only to find a sad little bunch of mud-soaked shacks when they got there." Wikipedia

Five main artists/cartographers created over 55% of the Library of Congress’ panoramic map collection, likely due to the long process of creating each map. Artists would walk city streets, sketching notable trees, buildings, and landmarks, later combining the sketches and raising the visual angle to accurately depict the landscape.

Advancements in artistic technologies (lithography, engraving, etc.) allowed for expedited pictorial map recreation. Popular, and heavily detailed, city maps functioned in local homes as wall decor, promoting personal civic pride. Hosts were able to point out to visitors exactly where they lived, worked, and socialized, heightening the relationship between identity and locale. While production occurred throughout the country, the demand for city promotion was higher north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Many of these maps (both originals and modern recreations) are still popular today for their detail and visual appeal. Panoramic pictorial maps serve as the main way that the “vitality of America’s urban centers” was graphically documented.

For Minnesota specifically, these maps showcase the state's history and growth through mining, milling, timber, and railroads. Minnesota is also notorious for its plethora of lakes and associated recreational activities. The cities showcased in this exhibit represent the metropolitan growth of both Minnesota, and the Midwest as a whole.

Minnesota Wikipedia Page

Library of Congress, Panoramic Mapping

From R.H. van Gent, r.h.vangent@uu.nl, Utrecht University

"The Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius is well known to map historians and historians of astronomy as the author of the Harmonia Macrocosmica (first published in 1660), a folio-sized work that is commonly regarded to be one of the most spectacular cosmographical atlases that was published in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Andreas Cellarius was born around the year 1596 in Neuhausen, a small town near Worms. He was the son of Andreas Cellarius, who was a pastor in Neuhausen from 1596 to 1599 and later moved to Heidelberg – the name of his mother is not known. After his education at the Sapierzkolleg in Heidelberg, Andreas Cellarius enrolled as a student at the University of Heidelberg in 1614 but it is not known how long he studied there or which lectures he attended.

In 1637 Andreas Cellarius moved to Hoorn, where he was appointed as rector of the Latin School in the former Ceciliaklooster. All of Andreas Cellarius’s scholarly works were published during his rectorship in Hoorn. Andreas Cellarius died in February/March of 1665 – the location of his grave is not known. His eldest son Andreas died in November of the same year and was buried in a rented grave near to the choir in the Grote Kerk of Hoorn.

His best known work, the Harmonia Macrocosmica, was published in 1660 (a reprint was issued in 1661) by the Amsterdam publisher Johannes Janssonius (1588-1664) as a cosmographical supplement to his Atlas Novus. Andreas Cellarius had already started working on this atlas before 1647 and intended it to be a historical introduction for a two-volume treatise on cosmography but the second part was never published.

The plates of his Harmonia Macrocosmica were reprinted (usually without the historical introduction and commentary) in 1708 by the Amsterdam publishers Gerard Valk (1652-1726) and Petrus Schenk the Elder (1660-1711) after acquiring the copperplates of Janssonius in 1694."

https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/

https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/aboutmyse...

Maps about the American South in the 19th Century, especially about cotton and slavery. Created as a supplement to a class hosted on October 21st, 2020 by my friend, Jan van Eck. The presentation was led by Steven Mintz of the University of Texas at Austin. The first map, however, is of Africa and was featured in a book called "America in 100 Maps" by Susan Schulten; it is a British map highlighting the extreme competition between the British and other countries over slave trading. My other favorite maps are Lincoln's slavery map from 1861 and the Armour map of commodities across the US, as well as the Reynold's 1856 map of the divided nature of the country in 1856, which features telling statistics about population of whites and slaves.

Resources:
* See stats about slavery and the south here.
* Steven Mintz of the University of Texas at Austin.
* Interview of Sven Beckert, regarded as "the" author of the book on cotton, by Christopher Lydon on Open Source
* Wikipedia entry on "cotton mills"
* Episode 2 of the New York Times podcast "1619" starting at around 7:30.
* van Eck course outline

Tom Paper 11/1/2020

https://pudding.cool/2017/01/shape-of-slavery/

Images and maps selected by Nick Kanas for his presentation to the California Map Society on October 24, 2020

description

A collection of railroad and canal maps from the Library of Congress

A collection of railroad and canal maps from The David Rumsey Center at Stanford University.

description

This is the "exhibit text" which is for a description of the exhibit. You can also add a hyperlink or video here.
Hyperlink example

Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the fundamentals of cartographic design. Emphasis on the science and art of map design in a GIS environment. Students will learn how to build a spatial database, implement best practice for processing various types of environmental and social data and apply basic visual analytics to understand spatial patterns. For the University of Colorado.

One map for now, but soon to be an exhibit of historical election maps. Tom Paper 11/4/2020

from the library of congress - 62 images

from the library of congress - 20 images

Panoramic maps of Pennsylvania from the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress Browse Maps by State
The Library of Congress Panoramic Artists and Publishers
The Library of Congress Panoramic Mapping

Welcome to The Digital Gallery’s exhibit on Levi Walter Yaggy, comprising 30+ images from the late 1800's used to teach kids about geography. When I first saw his maps and images, I imagined that the creator of these fantastic and creative images must have someone like van Gogh, Warhol or Basquiat, because of my notion of what is a creative personality. Well, it turns out, I was significantly wrong. Levi Walter Yaggy, was an entrepreneur, an investor, an inventor and a farmer. He was born in 1848, the tenth of eleven children. His main business was the Western Publishing House, a company he founded when he was 26 and which grew to have over one thousand employees. His inventiveness may explain why his maps and images have flaps, dials, sliders and other mechanical elements.

As a publisher, Yaggy’s company specialized in materials for teachers. His maps came in a kit and were each substantial in size, about 2 feet x 3 feet. Our Yaggy exhibit is composed of two sub-exhibits. The first, from 1893, has nine images that represent geographic terms and climate zones of the world, as well as a relief map of the United States. An unfortunate part of his work is the propagation of the racist idea that temperate zones and their people favor superior cultural development over tropical zones and their people. However, from an information design perspective, his maps and images are exquisitely done because they are "BAZIC" (see Google Slide below). They of their simplicity, their use of color and the overall engagement they foster.

Sources:
* Boston Rare Maps
* Open Culture article 2019
* National Geographic 2018
* Collossal 2019
* Yaggy Obituary
* Image of Yaggy and ancestry info
* Yaggy Plantation for Sale 2016. Also here.
* Books by L.W. Yaggy eBay
* Google Slide document about Yaggy and "View of Nature in Ascending Regions". Also describes BAZIC criteria for judging quality of a map.

25 maps from 1775 of Belgium by the Austrian cartographer Ferraris. Incredible cartouches.

See the Visscher Atlas of 1690, click here.

Remarks by Tom Paper in video here.

20 Famous Belgians

2nd introductory video by Tom Paper here.
Images of Visscher Atlas from David Rumsey.
Google doc of introductory remarks by Tom Paper here.
See TDG exhibit of the Ferraris Atlas of 1775 here.

https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2020/11/a-place-for-dry...

Wikipedia - China Eastern Railway

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3301pm.gan00002/?st=...

Panoramic Connecticut

Images from Library of Congress

Panoramic Images of Ohio
Source: Library of Congress

Panoramic Artists and Publishers
Source: Library of Congress

Browse Maps by State
Source: Library of Congress

Panoramic images of Michigan - test
Source: Library of Congress

Panoramic Artists and Publishers
Source: Library of Congress

Browse Maps by State
Source: Library of Congress

Library of Congress - New York Panoramics

16 images of the world with beautiful vignettes from the French cartographer Alexandre Vuillemin.

Wikipedia - Alexandre Vuillemin

David Rumsey - Vuillemin Atlas of 1861

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yacxdKSM_NdVd0...

David Rumsey - Linschoten Atlas of 1638

An exhibit about Jo Mora's carte of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where Jo lived from 1920 until he passed away in 1947.

Click here to read Peter Hiller's account of Jo's work on this spectacular pictorial map.

Maps of Virginia and West Virginia regions during the 18th and 19th centuries. This exhibit maps the Ratliff family in Virginia during the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest Ratliff family records that I have located so far date from about 1730-1740 in Louisa County, then Bath County beginning about 1801.

This exhibit shows different views of the Mediterranean in maps or their copies on parchment or on paper as single items, in manuscripts or in atlases. These maps were sketched, drawn or painted in different locations along the Mediterran shores or in major cultural centers on the mainland south, east and north of the sea. Their languages are Arabic, Latin, Ottoman Turkish or various vernaculars that grew out of Latin. Two issues will be explored. First, we ask how the Mediterranean and its geographical, physical and cultural part were perceived by the map producer/s. Second, we highlight a cross-cultural nature of their compositions.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

Library of Congress - Panoramic New Jersey

Library of Congress - Panoramic Missouri

Topographical Survey of St. Louis Missouri (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress - Panoramic West Virginia
Browse Maps by State
Panoramic Artists and Publishers

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

David Rumsey - blog post 2021-01

David Rumsey - blog post 2019-05

This exhibit has been created by Peter Hiller, Curator of The Jo Mora Trust and Nancy Grossman. Here by author and researcher Nancy W. Grossman shares with Digital Gallery viewers her introduction to Jo Mora as found in her book Jo Mora's Carte of Los Angeles: A Trail Guide published in December 2019.

Further in the digital exhibit, the dots found on the map correspond to a few of the sections in her book each of which articulates the significance of those vignettes found on Jo Mora's carte...

"Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora. How does one begin to summarize such an enormous life?

Jo Mora, Renaissance Man of the West, is the phrase I come upon most, that and Jo Mora, cowboy cartographer. This man is also a writer, a painter, illustrator and muralist, sculptor and photographer, and a cartoonist and comic artist, which will come as no surprise to fans of his cartes. He even designs a 1925 half dollar coin for the US Mint commemorating the state of California’s 75th anniversary.

During an insurgency in 1877, the Mora family flees Uruguay. Jo is a year old at the time; his brother Luis is three. They go first to Barcelona, finally arriving in the US in 1880, where they settle in the greater New York area. Both boys are already deep into the making of art; at the ages of eight and ten respectively, they consider creating a twenty- foot mural of the Iroquois Indian wars, though there’s no record of them actually doing so.

Their father Domingo is an accomplished sculptor. Jo and Luis attend primary school in Perth Amboy and grammar school in Allston, Massachusetts. At 15, Jo completes the Boston Latin School, and graduates from the Pingry Academy in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1894. Both study sculpture under their father, who teaches art in Perth Amboy, Boston and New York City.

By 1895 Jo’s studying at the Art Students League, the Chase School of Art in New York and the Cowles Art School in Boston – and, at 19, has already produced poster murals for the Clermont Skating Rink in Brooklyn. Returning to Boston, Jo goes to work first for the Boston Traveler and then becomes a member of the Boston Herald art staff for the next four years, illustrating articles plus various books.

In 1903, he takes a trip west, working as a cowpuncher on a ranch in Solvang near the Mission Santa Ines, which inspires him to travel the entire Camino Real and sketch the Missions he saw. In 1904 he travels by mule-drawn wagon across Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park and the Mojave Desert to Needles on his way to the Hopi mesas in Arizona. In Arizona, he is permitted to witness the Hopi Snake Dance, then sets to both photographing and producing detailed artwork of the ceremonies of the Hopi and Navaho tribes he’s gotten to know over two years of living among them.

Upon settling back in California he will marry Grace Needham, of San Jose, CA., at the Mission San Gabriel in 1907 and start to raise his soon to be born children Jo, Jr. and patty.

Mora publishes twelve of his iconic cartes over his lifetime. The first, Monterey Peninsula, his second, The 17 Mile Drive, and the first version of California all come out in 1927. San Diego appears in 1928. The three national parks, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, all come out in 1931. Grace Line Fleet to the Old Spanish Main and Evolution of the Cowboy: Levi’s Round-Up of Cowboy Lore are published in 1933; the latter is a poster rather than a map, as is his Indians of North America in 1936. Carmel-by- the-Sea and Los Angeles are both issued in 1942. A second, smaller version of California will be his last, in 1945. An unfinished pencil rendering of a map of Catalina is found after his death.

But cartes are hardly all Jo Mora does. This man’s work is as varied as it is prolific. Starting out collaborating with his father, he finds himself working on huge architectural projects. In Los Angeles, at least four buildings include his work, including the Palace Theatre; he is assisting his father on four sculpted allegorical panels representing song, dance, music and drama when his father dies while this commission is still in progress. Mora completes it.

In San Jose, Mora creates two heroic male sphinx figures for the Scottish Rite Temple [today the San Jose Athletic Club], plus bas-reliefs over its entrance and throughout the building. He provides decorative elements for the Monterey County Courthouse, as well as numerous detailed panels for the King City High School auditorium. In Carmel, he sculpts Father Junipero Serra’s cenotaph, an altar and a cross.

He creates pediments and bas-relief panels for four buildings in San Francisco; his Miguel de Cervantes looks down on his Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the Golden Gate Park. A marble bench with sculpted bears by Mora sits in front of the Sather Tower on the UC Berkeley campus. He creates the main entrance doorway and sculptures of bears to support fountains for the Union Wool Building in Boston. He designs a number of homes himself.

Architectural work is just one facet of Mora’s endless creativity. He designs everything from ordinary scale sculptures, many of cowboys breaking broncs, to “heroic” (larger than life) sculptures, to bronze plaques and vast murals. He creates fifteen or more dioramas, thirteen for the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, Oklahoma.

One diorama, exhibited at the California State Building at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, is a one-hundred-foot-long depiction of the 1769 Portolá Expedition. Tragically, it is destroyed in a fire six months after the opening of the fair.

Mora illustrates countless books, both his own and for those of others. He designs bookends, trophies, coins and scrip certificates for use in Carmel during the Depression. He sculpts his son Jo Jr. at three years of age, reata in hand, breaking a hobby horse."

Nancy's book is an annotated look at all of the details seen on Jo Mora's carte of Los Angeles. To purchase the book:
https://jomoratrailguides.com/
https://www.nancygrossmanbooks.com/my-publications
Nancy Grossman's email
Peter Hiller's email

Videos, maps and images from the Bay Area Map Group (BAM) meeting January 16 2021. (Exhibit 117) Speakers were Eliane Dotson, Ron Gibbs, Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Mike Schembri, Ken Habeeb, Susan Powell and Susan Schulten.

Link to chat from the meeting.

The Bay Area Map Group is a part of The California Map Society.

https://californiamapsociety.org/

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

Panoramic Mapping Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

Richard S. Breiman, MD, retired in October 2011 after 10 years of service to the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. Breiman received his medical degree from UCSF in 1973. He completed a Diagnostic Radiology residency at Stanford University in 1979, followed by CT and Ultrasound fellowships, also at Stanford University, in 1976 and 1978. From 1979-1981, Breiman was an assistant professor of radiology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and a Clinical Instructor of Radiology at UC Berkeley from 1982-1994. Concurrently he served as volunteer clinical faculty at UCSF from 1984-1987. He worked in private practice as a radiologist and partner at Pacific Imaging Consultants from 1989-2001. He was appointed assistant clinical professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging in July 2001, became an associate clinical professor in 2003, and was promoted to a clinical professor in 2007. He served as director of the Henry I. Goldberg Center for Advanced Imaging Education, and more recently on the faculty at San Francisco General Hospital. “Dr. Breiman joined the Radiology faculty here at SFGH at a time of need for our department. His willingness to cover several niches helped us navigate through a rocky period and to emerge as strong as ever,” said Mark Wilson, MD, chief of Radiology at SFGH. ”His warm demeanor, consummate professionalism, and dedication to radiology education will be greatly missed at SFGH.” Breiman will return to the department part-time on a recall appointment to provide clinical coverage at the UCSF Ambulatory Care Center.

UCSF

Our ten presenters are a mix - famous names and new faces - whether collector, dealer, enthusiast or academic, each is passionate about what they will be bringing before us. The contributed items are an equal mix - maps, a globe, an atlas, and town plans. The significance of these contributions ranges from the historical and topographical to the cultural and the linguistic. The items range from the 16^th to the 20^th Centuries.
Speaker Video Playlist on Youtube
https://www.imcos.org/

Welcome to The Digital Gallery’s exhibit of the Brittania Depicta, a road atlas of Britain published in 1720 by John Owen and engraved by Emanuel Bowen. This atlas was based on the Britannia atlas of 1675 created by John Ogilby.

David Rumsey

Video 2 can be found here or in curated text of 1st image in exhibit.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/panoramic-maps/?fa...

https://www.loc.gov/maps/?fa=location:arizona&q=ar...

https://www.loc.gov/maps/?fa=location:delaware&q=d...

https://www.loc.gov/maps/?fa=location:idaho&q=idah...

https://www.loc.gov/maps/?fa=location:mississippi&...

This atlas, from the David Rumsey collection, is a treasure trove of imagery from the early 18th century. There's an ornate drawing of the German Emperor, a dozen beautiful celestial maps, a drawing of a wooden world clock with a map in its center, a drawing of fortress types, a drawing of a sailing warship and its parts, a drawing of whale types and whaling business activities, a glorious world map (of which we have a copy in our living room), incredible cartouches throughout, beautiful city maps of Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Frankfurt and Constantinople, and several maps where California is depicted as an island. Also noteworthy is that several parts of the world remain undiscovered and unmapped, including Australia and New Zealand and the area from California up to the arctic.

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/sear...

http://sainthelenaisland.info/maps.htm

Thanks to the following individuals for their help in this exhibit:
* Translations: Julie Bancilhon (julie.bancilhon@gmail.com)
* Research: David Williams (Dawcoronado92@gmail.com)
* Scholarly research: Katie Hornstein (https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/katie-horn...) and (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bulletinfront/0054307...)

Wikipedia - The Great Miseries of War

Torture Museum

David Rumsey

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/sear...

Favorite maps of members of the California Map Society.

Maps and images that describe the Battle of Waterloo.

by Steve Hanon 4/10/2021

California Map Society - webpage

California Map Society - YouTube channel

Chat for May 1, 2021 meeting is here

The California Map Society 2021 Spring Conference is happening May 1st and May 15th. To register for the May 1st Zoom session, click https://bit.ly/2O5d8a9. To register for the May 15th Zoom session, click https://bit.ly/3fxPT3I. Both sessions are free and open to the public.

May 1, 2021

• Benjamin Grant, Founder of Overview, on How We Change The Earth. (Ben's TED talk here and Ben's books here.)
• Daniel Crouch, Co-Founder of Daniel Crouch Rare Books, on Contagious Cartography, A Panorama of Pandemics & Plagues. (Prior talks by Daniel here.)
• Steve Hanon, President of New York Map Society, on Maps of Spain in the Age of Discovery. (Steve's prior presentation to CMS here. Steve's website here.)

May 15, 2021

• Jim Schein, Founder of Schein & Schein, and Tom Paper, Founder of The Digital Gallery, on The Cartographic History of San Francisco. (Jim's book here.)
• Courtney Spikes, Historian and CMS Vice President, on The History & Cartography of Waterloo. (Courtney's prior presentation to CMS on Paris here.)
• Susan Schulten, American Historian, and Professor at University of Denver, on How Maps Made America. (Susan's books here and here.)

William Hogarth images from the collection of Rich and Leslie Breiman.

Twelve key maps describing the history of San Francisco. Presented to the California Map Society, May 15, 2021, by Jim Schein and Tom Paper.

Please join us for our four June lectures. All lectures are free but registration is necessary. Information and links are below.

June 9, 2021, 7pm GMT - The Malcolm Young Lecture, Daniel Crouch, A Protestant Wind or Hot Air? A study of the Astor Armada drawings, (video of talk here) TO REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/153323088485

June 16, 2021, 2pm GMT - Peter Geldart, Mapping the British Occupation of Manila 1762–64, (video of talk here) TO REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/152104628037

June 23, 2021, 7pm GMT - Paula van Gestel, Wall maps published in the Netherlands between c.1550 and 1850, TO REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/152108419377

June 30, 2021, 7pm GMT - Wes Brown, Alzate y Ramirez and the mapping of New Spain, (video of talk here) TO REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/152109701211

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/sear...

Interactive Globe: A.D. 1498. The Discovery Of America.

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/sear...

Link to video of talk (June 30, 2021)

Google Presentation Deck

Google Doc - Text of remarks

Presentation by Tom Paper to The Economic Roundtable of San Francisco on June 30, 2021.

Antique maps & geospatial analytics. How I help companies make better decisions using lesions from history's greatest cartographers.

Tom Paper is the Managing Partner of Webster Pacific and the Founder of The Digital Gallery. Tom is originally from Minnesota, one of four kids; he has three sisters and went to a summer camp in Northern Minnesota that led him on wilderness canoeing expeditions where he often was the navigator; he attended Williams College where he studied economics and environmental studies and then worked as a grain trader in South Dakota and a consultant with Bain & Company in Boston. He then attended the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, before joining his family’s business which makes bolts & forgings for the railroads of north america. He then became the CFO of a timber and lumber company and then was president of a coffee roasting business. In 2003, he established Webster Pacific, a ten-person consulting firm which helps companies make better decisions using data, analytics, geospatial analytics and a lot of common sense and little a bit of wisdom. Most importantly, he is married to Eleanor Bigelow, with whom he has raised two children. Tom lives in San Francisco in an 1887 Victorian, which, after his wife and children, has been the recipient of all of his earnings.

Images from a talk by Sean Conway, 9/25/2021, for the California Map Society Fall Conference. Title of talk: "Breaking the Third Wall: Going Beyond Traditional Hillshade," by Mr. Sean Conway, Orthoimagery Technical Expert. Mr. Conway uses his formidable technology skills to transform vintage maps into stunning, three-dimensional relief maps by meticulously rendering elevation data. You can see some of his work at Muir Way.

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, 1696 - 1770, German anatomist

Exhibit curated by Richard Breiman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Siegfried_A...

Presentations for the BAM Group, part of the California Map Society, on August 18, 2021 at the home of Tom Paper & Eleanor Bigelow.

Created 9/22/2021 for Stephanie Curci by Tom Paper.

68 maps in total.

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/view/all/...

https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search?page=1...

2021 CMS Fall Conference. Hosted by CMS Vice President Courtney Spikes on September 25, 2021. Playlist of all videos.

A world atlas by George Willdey.

Maps from David Rumsey.

Wikipedia - "George Willdey (1676–1737) was a British engraver and optical instrument maker. Willdey made engravings for a number of mapmakers. His shop sold maps, optical instruments, toys, china, glass, and earthenware. Willdey engraved maps for Charles Price (with whom he partnered 1710-1713), Emanuel Bowen, Christopher Saxton, and Thomas Jeffreys, among many others. Willdey was born in Staffordshire in 1676. He was apprenticed to John Yarwell and belonged to the trade guild Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. Throughout his career he took on a number of apprentices, notably including many female apprentices which was unusual for the time."

"The Crusader Bible, also known as the Morgan Picture Bible, the Maciejowski Bible, and the Shah ‘Abbas Bible, is not only one of the greatest medieval manuscripts in the Morgan, it also ranks as one of the incomparable achievements of French Gothic illumination." The Morgan Library and Museum

Thumbnails of all images here.

Wikipedia

This is a test exhibit to demonstrate The Digital Gallery for WAML on 10/28/2021.

I bought this 1889 atlas on eBay in 2019 and, just recently, I scanned it and uploaded it to The Digital Gallery. I love the pictorial images of the countries; they convey so much more than boundaries and so much more than text. I also love that the atlas was made by a coffee company, marketing itself. The Arbuckle Coffee Company was an innovative marketer, the #2 coffee company in its day and the brand still exists today. Tom Paper 11/16/2021

History of the Arbuckle Coffee Company

More history about Folger's and Arbuckle

Arbuckle Coffee in New York City

Arbuckle Coffee mentioned on Wikipedia page about home coffee roasting

ct

This is the exhibit text....adding more text...and more text again

add link here

add another link here

Images of trees from around the world.

Atlas Obscura

I bought this atlas on eBay in 2019. It has numerous parts where the world remained unknown or mistakenly drawn, especially the Northwest Passage area. I love how worn it is. I also find the map of antiquity to be curious and interesting; it demonstrates the interest that people of the early 1800's wanted to know about antiquity.

"The New School Atlas, William Darton, 1819" ID97932

I bought these images from Jim Schein in 2019. Check out the hairstyle on Dayton, a significant figure in Minnesota history. His family founded the retailing company that became Target.

I bought this 1883 US history book by J.C. Ridpath on eBay in 2019. I love the timeline charts, which are remarkably informative and great information design. In November 2021, I collected hi-res images of the timelines and maps in the book and then converted them into this exhibit for The Digital Gallery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clark_Ridpath

The eight-speaker event took place on Zoom on November 30th, 2021, at 6pm UK time.

IMCoS Event Page

Playlist of all videos here.

**************************************************************************

Chat from meeting here and below:

17:46:14 From maria rogante to Everyone:

good evening, i'm from Iyaly, absolutely excited to listen this conference

17:48:14 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

To see images for today's presentation, go to https://www.thedigitalgallery.org/exhibits/194

17:59:16 From Ana Soto-Canino to Everyone:

Good day or evening to all. Ana here in the grey northeast coast, USA.

17:59:49 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Ana!

17:59:58 From Catherine NJ to Everyone:

9pm Kenya.

18:00:08 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Catherine!

18:00:28 From maria rogante to Everyone:

7 PM, Italy

18:00:37 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hello Maria!

18:01:03 From Stephen Nagler to Everyone:

Hello from sunny Knoxville, TN

18:01:12 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Stephen!

18:01:16 From Catherine NJ to Everyone:

Hi Mike!

18:01:29 From Stephen Nagler to Everyone:

Hi Mike!

18:01:42 From Carey Gordon to Everyone:

Hi from Florida, 1 pm here

18:02:05 From Mark Mavroudis to Everyone:

Hello from Cupertino, CA - 10am here

18:03:35 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

to see the slides for today's presentation, go to https://www.thedigitalgallery.org/exhibits/194

18:09:05 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Mark M

18:09:16 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Carey

18:10:42 From Franca Tegliucci to Everyone:

Hi everyone from Rome. My name is Franca Tegliucci

18:10:57 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

Hi Franca! Thanks for coming!

18:10:58 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hello Franca - Welcome!

18:12:48 From Flavio Ruzzene to Everyone:

Hi everyone from Veneto.Flavio

18:13:17 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Hi Flavio. Hope it is warmer in the Veneto than in Northern England!

18:16:20 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Perhaps remind people where the raise hand icon is!

18:19:34 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

Please feel free to place questions in the chat. We will ask them when either directly after the speaker finishes speaking or during the Q&A period at the end of the event.

18:27:26 From John Docktor to Everyone:

Is there anything on the verso?

18:31:11 From Ana Soto-Canino to Everyone:

Laurence, it would be an interesting project for a secondary school student to determine which graphic devices found in this artifact might still be found in current rail maps, say, even the London underground rail system, or the NYC subway. The exploration would deal with something thus: To what extent did these artifacts of the 1800s manage to “tool” our 20th century cartographic vocabulary for the display of railway lines.

18:31:58 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

1859 Belgian railway map by Leloup: link to KBR digitization of one of their copies https://opac.kbr.be/LIBRARY/doc/SYRACUSE/17108800

18:34:24 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Thanks Laurence

18:43:03 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

French Wikipedia is very good on Philippe Vandermaelen and l’Établissement géographique de Bruxelles, who produced the Leloup map https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Vandermaele...

18:48:54 From Andrew Kapochunas to Everyone:

Did Plato ever approach USPS about incorporating his system of addressing in rural areas?

18:50:03 From Stephen Nagler to Everyone:

Was either the clock or compass system copied by others later, and if so where else was it applied?

18:50:19 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

Sorry, forgot to unmute 😆

18:51:09 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Do you think Plato was aware of the arrondissements of Paris, which are arranged in a spiral?

18:51:12 From Ana Soto-Canino to Everyone:

Mr. Hoffeld, thank you. Lovely chart. Just yesterday I learnt of Basil Brown’s endeavors regarding not just archaeological efforts in the late 1930s at Sutton Hoo, but also in gathering data for astronomical charts, and while also trying to make them accessible “to the common man” , as he once supposedly said. Your star chart came to me just in time to literally add color to my findings about B. Brown, all new to me.

18:52:17 From Mark Mavroudis to Everyone:

Hello everyone. I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying these fascinating presentations. Not a collector or researching - just someone who enjoys looking at maps.

18:52:42 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

Thanks, Mark, we are glad you can be here.

18:52:46 From Ana Soto-Canino to Everyone:

Thank you folks! Lovely gathering. But not it’s the post-lunch-work hours here in NJ USA, so I must leave early. Thank you to all presenters for sharing!

18:53:05 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

Thanks you, Mark! Loved that map and the "system" of tracking...

18:53:16 From Catherine NJ to Everyone:

really loving it all. I just love maps 🙂

18:53:37 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

Laurence - a fascinating map, thank you for sharing...I will be exploring that map further...and also looking for a high res version

18:54:21 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

Peter - thank you for a great presentation...I wonder if eminent domain is displayed somehow in the map

18:54:46 From Tom Paper to Everyone:

Marc - thank you for a great presentation...colors are fantastic

18:54:49 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Thanks Ana! Indeed it would be really productive to see what students could do with the iconography and overall idea applied to modern data, maybe different modes of travel.

18:55:50 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Ana: Also worth noting is that the first general maps that included railways were the old plates re-engraved with the new lines, so they had to be distinct from roads, rivers & boundaries.

18:56:51 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Tom: good to hear, I’d love to hear what you discover, ponder or conclude!

19:03:23 From Franca Tegliucci to Everyone:

This is a real gorgeous map.

19:07:08 From Mark Rogers to Everyone:

Fantastic detail to this map :)

19:12:40 From LARRY ROBBINS to Everyone:

Greetings from Auckland New Zealand. Thanks for the opportunity today. Our day is just starting so with reluctance I must leave. I was IMCOS member for many years. Must rejoin! Thanks again.

19:12:59 From Mike Sweeting to Everyone:

Glad you can join us Larry!

19:22:21 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

Please do post any questions you might have here in the chat.

19:31:31 From Mark Mavroudis to Everyone:

Thank you for sharing all the beautiful maps today.

19:37:06 From Flavio Ruzzene to Everyone:

Thak you !!!

19:37:45 From Flavio Ruzzene to Everyone:

Thank you !!!!!

19:45:54 From Carey Gordon to Everyone:

For Martin van Bauman: What resources do you use translate the place names from those on the map to modern names?

19:46:45 From Ramon Sieveking to Everyone:

My first virtual experience with IMCoS. It was very interesting. Thank you for sharing your maps with us. Greetings from Germany.

19:52:22 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

For Katie: Could you comment on the production (or lack of it) of printed versions of this genre of military map?

19:52:56 From Sylvia Sumira to Everyone:

§

19:53:54 From Sylvia Sumira to Everyone:

Accidental symbol typo! Just like to say thank you to everyone for an interesting and varied evening .

19:55:26 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

https://militarymaps.rct.uk/eighty-years-war-dutch...

19:55:29 From Jay to Everyone:

How soon do we get to do this again?

19:56:20 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

drsweeting@aol.com

19:56:26 From Mark Monmonier to Everyone:

Thanks for organizing and orchestrating this session, Mike. Informative and enjoyable.

19:56:31 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Please feel free to contact me at lorp@lorp.org about the Leloup Belgium map

19:56:41 From Franca Tegliucci to Everyone:

Thanks a lot for your very interesting conference. Thank you for sharing so many beautiful maps.

19:56:52 From Catherine NJ to Everyone:

thanks so much

19:56:54 From Laurence Penney to Everyone:

Thanks tons for organizing this, a fine evening.

19:56:57 From Mark Rogers to Everyone:

Great show and tell thank you :)

19:57:39 From Steve Belcher to Everyone:

Thanks everyone

19:57:50 From Emmie’s iPad to Everyone:

Thank you very much

19:57:54 From Stephen Nagler to Everyone:

Thanks very much to the speakers and organizers!

19:57:54 From Marc Hoffeld to Everyone:

Thank you !

19:58:19 From Mark Monmonier to Everyone:

Thanks, Tom.

19:58:40 From Flavio Ruzzene to Everyone:

Thanks so much

20:04:51 From Katherine Parker to Everyone:

I have to head off, have a great night everyone!

The Digital Gallery is pleased to present the second exhibit in the American Revolution Series. Previously, in Exhibit 40, "George Washington and The American Revolution, 1775-1776," we displayed, through historic maps and iconic images, the course of the first two years of the war. The cause of American Independence went from elation when the American militia forced the British to retreat from Concord, Massachusetts (April 1775), to horror at the carnage at Bunker Hill (June 1775), and back to victory when the British Army was forced to evacuate Boston (March 1776). But a huge British force returned to New York (July 1776) and defeated General George Washington's army in a series of battles through late summer and autumn. The American cause was on the brink of disaster (December 1776) when Washington decided upon a bold stroke of war to save the American Revolution--and the future of the United States.

Come with us now as we jump back to catch up with the momentous story of the Campaign of 1777 and why it proved to be the Decisive Year of the American Revolution.

GLAM (Greater Los Angeles Mappers) and CMS (California Map Society) Holiday Cocoa Event 2021-12-04

Chat from event here

Summarized links:

• Fred DeJarlais - mapping and genealogy in Minnesota family history
  • Hennepin County Aerial Imagery Viewer
• Peter Hiller - AAA Indian Country Guide Map
  • https://publiclands.org/products/map_aaa_guide_to_indian_country
  • https://tarnmoor.com/2019/12/03/indian-country-2/
  • https://www.amazon.com/Map-AAA-Guide-Indian-Country/dp/B005MZ53RI
• Emily Yang - Miniature Map Library
  • https://www.miniatures.com/Sams-Study-Little-Kit-P28725.aspx
  • Amazon.com
• Cinthia Eichhorn - Tribal Connections GIS Map
  • ArcGIS
• Louise Ratliff - Western Association of Map Libraries
  • https://waml.org/
• Trish Caldwell - exhibit on Towns, Trains, and Terrain at Crocker in Sacramento
  • https://www.crockerart.org/exhibitions/towns-trains-and-terrain
• Fred Auda
  • Roll on 110th map - https://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-EB7
  • Fred Auda’s Navajoland map - David Rumsey
• Tim Weiskel
  • Africa Map Circle - digital resources
    • "A Short Overview of Emerging Digital Technologies for Research & Teaching in African History & Cultural Studies,"
    • Postelwayt map can be found here on The Digital Gallery
• Books being read
  • Mr. Selden’s Map of China - Thriftbooks
    • Selden Map of China - Bodleian Library
  • In the Kingdom of Ice - Amazon (Tom Paper)
  • A History of Tourism - Amazon (Therese Melbar)
  • Big Transitions in Human History - envjusttv (Tim Weiskel)
• Len Rothman - 3D maps
  • raised relief maps hubbard - https://www.metskers.com/c7380/Raised-Relief-Maps.html
  • Sean Conway presentation to CMS on digital raised relief maps https://bit.ly/3Dr2r5r
• Join California Map Society https://californiamapsociety.org/page-18382

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_K._Lobeck

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This is Tom Paper and Eleanor Bigelow's art and map collection

Google Books

Google Books

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.Mapmaking in Islamic Societies

Hundreds of maps survive mostly in manuscripts drawn and colored by unknown people over a millennium in numerous different societies that were ruled mostly by men but also occasionally by women adhering to different Islamic denominations. The manuscripts with maps are often undated and provide rarely information about the place of production. How then can we know when and where or by what kind of person they were made? Colors, styles of script, also called calligraphy, the type of paper and occasionally of card board, traces of instruments or lack of them, content features of the maps, and notes on cover or end pages, at the margins, or on other parts of the manuscript and the langue/s used in the manuscript can help us identifying at least the period, region, culture or disciplinary context of the people who drew the maps – scribes, painters and other craftsmen, scholars, captains, soldiers, court historians and possibly other professionals and amateurs.

This exhibit is a brief introduction into some of the main domains where maps were used as illustrations of texts, as carriers of independent information, as educational tools, or as witnesses of cross-cultural contacts and interests.

Generally, four classes of maps are recognized:

1. maps derived in some way or the other from Ptolemy's Geography

2. maps connected somehow with pre-Islamic Iranian political geography

3. maps reflecting connections with cartographic developments in European Christian cultures

4. narrative maps.

This classification is admittedly too narrow to do justice to the many different specimens that survive in many libraries and museums across the globe. It somehow also hides what is in my view the main, unifying feature of almost all maps from Islamic societies that I have seen: the multiplicity of their cultural features. The only class that does not bring together elements from at least two other classes is number 4.

In addition to the maps that can be included into one of the four classes there are exceptional specimens which differ from any of the standards represented by them.

In this introduction, we show a few examples of each of the four classes and of the exceptions.

Based on the work of Sonja Brentjes.

Academia.edu

I bought this atlas in late 2019 for $125 on eBay and we digitized it in December 2021. Published in 1845, it explains geographically, with political boundaries, how the world was understood in classical times and then re-looks at the world is understood in 1845. I was especially struck by the drawings (p6) of the globes that represented both the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems, the map of the voyages of discovery (p23), the map of Africa (p38) where vast amounts are still undiscovered (it would be 26 years before Stanley found Livingston) and 22 years before the Suez Canal was built. The map of North America (p39) is remarkably accurate and the only unknown places are in the arctic where, in the same year this atlas was published, 1845, the famous and ill-fated Franklin expedition was just being launched.

.

.

A collection of various persuasive and pictorial maps.