Mapping the Past

Introduction

This lesson provides students with experience in working with historical maps as cultural artifacts that reflect the views of particular times and places. Students begin by examining European world maps from three eras -- the Middle Ages, the Age of Discovery, and the period of New World exploration -- in order to discover how people of those times understood their world and interacted with it. Then students look at maps that record the early exploration of the American West, noting how mapmakers kept alive hopes of finding a Northwest Passage and how this hope is reflected in what Lewis and Clark marked as significant on the map produced by their expedition. Finally, students collect present-day maps, using library and/or Internet resources, to investigate the range of perspectives we adopt toward our world and how our maps reflect our own cultural concerns and aspirations.

Learning Objectives

1 Begin by providing each student with a copy of the Map Analysis Worksheet available through EDSITEment at the Digital Classroom website of the National Archives and Records Administration. At the website's homepage, click "Document Analysis Worksheets" in the blue sidebar and click Map. Discuss with students how they can use the worksheet to discover various kinds of information in an historical map, including facts about the map itself (date, creator, purpose, etc.) and facts about the past. Explain that in this lesson students will use the worksheet to examine a variety of historical maps, first comparing European world maps from different eras, then tracing the process of mapping the American West. (Note: Point out to students that some questions on the "Map Analysis Worksheet" (e.g., 6D and 6E) may not be relevant to this lesson.)

2 Divide the class into small study groups and have each group use the "Map Analysis Worksheet" to prepare a class report on the significance of one of the following historical maps available through EDSITEment:

• The Psalter Map (c. 1250)—a religious representation of the medieval world with Jerusalem at its center—can be viewed at the EDSITEment-reviewed website Labyrinth.
• Higden's Polychronicon (c. 1350)—a more secular medieval map that appeared in a history of all times since creation. At the EDSITEment-reviewed website National Geographic Society Xpeditions.
• Ptolemy's World Map (1482)—a map combining the classical view of Ptolemaic astronomy with geographic information from the early voyages of the Age of Discovery (National Geographic Society Xpeditions).
• The "Christopher Columbus" Chart (c. 1490)—a Genoese map sometimes attributed to Columbus that shows a world map based on geographic information from the early voyages of the Age of Discovery within the concentric spheres of Ptolemaic astronomy (National Geographic Society Xpeditions).
• Waldseemuller's Global Map (1509)—the first map to show the New World as two continents and the first to designate this area "America"—available the EDSITEment-reviewed Lewis & Clark: The Maps of Exploration website.
• Speed's World Map (1627)—a richly detailed representation of the eastern and western hemispheres after more than a century of New World exploration (National Geographic Society Xpeditions).

3 Have each group display and report on its map, summarizing the findings recorded on their "Map Analysis Worksheets." As students present their reports, call attention to the following points:

• Orientation: The medieval maps are oriented toward the East, which appears at the top; those from the Renaissance are oriented toward the North. How does this reflect a difference in the way people could tell directions in these two eras (i.e., by the rising and setting of the sun, by use of a compass)? How does it reflect a more profound shift in their view of the world (i.e., from an orientation based in nature and the symbolism associated with natural phenomena to one based in technology and rational analysis)?
• Landmarks: The medieval maps highlight biblical places, like Jerusalem and the Red Sea, as well as seats of power, represented by castles. The maps from the Age of Discovery highlight geographic features and record sea and river ports in great detail. The maps of the New World begin to identify all places of settlement and to mark national borders. Discuss this transition from a religious and feudal outlook to a factual outlook based on seagoing exploration to an outlook reflecting political relationships.
• Organization: The medieval maps are centered on Jerusalem and show a world of nearly contiguous land masses, reflecting perhaps a world view based in landholding and land travel. The maps from the Age of Discovery retain a medieval framework, centering on Jerusalem and placing Earth at the center of the cosmos, but they show a world in which lands are linked (or separated) by water, reflecting the seagoing preoccupation of the era, and a world open to further exploration at its edges, rather than closed in by a clearly marked ocean border. The maps of the New World continue this emphasis on the world's oceans but also impose a grid across lands and seas alike, reflecting an increasingly scientific and rational outlook.

4 Next, have students examine a series of maps recording European exploration of the American West, which show how cultural assumptions sometimes guided the mapmaker's attempt to "fill in the blanks." For this part of the lesson, have each study group use the "Map Analysis Worksheet" to draw information from all three maps:

• Senex Map of North America (1710)—a British attempt to consolidate information about the continent which presents known areas in great detail but leaves unknown areas almost undefined, except for an indication of a Northwest Passage via the Missouri River. At the Exploring the West from Monticello website homepage, click "Related Resources on the WWW," then click "Rare Map Collection." Select "Colonial America” and scroll down and select Map 1710 S4: North America.
• Arrowsmith's "New Discoveries" (1795) -- a map of the western North American interior that represents the natural geography of the region almost exclusively and shows not only its vast expanse but also an unbroken mountain range separating east from west. Unexplored areas are virtually blank, yet there is still a suggestion of a Northwest Passage via the Missouri River. At the Exploring the West from Monticello website homepage, click "To the Western Ocean: Planning the Lewis and Clark Expedition," then scroll down and click Aaron Arrowsmith, A Map Exhibiting All the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America.
• The Lewis and Clark Track (1810) -- based on the maps William Clark produced during the expedition, this map also records mainly the natural geography of the American West, with an emphasis on the abundance of navigable waterways which may give the impression that there is a passage to the Pacific. At the Lewis & Clark: The Voyage of the Corps of Discovery website homepage, click "The Archive," then select "Maps" and click Map of Lewis and Clark Track.

5 Have each study group share its observations on each map and on the relationships between them in an informal report, then discuss as a class the sequence traced by these maps, exploring the points below:

• How do hopes or expectations influence these mapmakers? Note, for example, how the Senex map resists extending the Rocky Mountains north and south from their known positions to create a barrier across the continent, and how even Arrowsmith thins the mountain range where it is unexplored while showing it as an imposing obstacle elsewhere. Clark, who had crossed that range, details its rigors, but his meticulous attention to waterways might be seen as a lingering hope for transcontinental transport despite the mountains.
• How do cultural assumptions influence the mapmakers in their choice of landmarks? Which details of the region do they consider significant? For example, note in this regard how Arrowsmith, in contrast to the Speed map of 1627, excludes all but natural landmarks. To what extent is this scientific objectivity, to what extent does it imply that this region is an uninhabited wilderness? The same question arises even more insistently with regard to Clark's map, since he was obviously aware that the region was already settled by Native Americans. Are cultural assumptions at work here -- assumptions about the demands of science or the rights of nations -- eliminating all trace of the region's people from these maps?
• To provide a counterview of the region, showing it as a land not only inhabited but possessed by different tribal groups, share with students an ethnographic map of the America West before westward expansion at the Early Indian Tribes, Culture Areas, and Linguistic Stocks, Western U.S.

6 Conclude this lesson by having students individually collect different kinds of present-day maps of the world and/or the United States -- road maps, vacation maps, political maps, satellite-image maps, computer-generated maps, ecological maps, etc. Let the class choose several examples from this collection for study using the "Map Analysis Worksheet" to find out what our maps might reveal about our world view and our assumptions about our relationship to our world.

Extending the Lesson