Early American Spaces: Using Maps to Illustrate Colonial History

A presentation to the American History Teachers’ Collaborative

November 22, 2008

S. Max Edelson, Department of History, University of Illinois

To download this list in PDF format, click here.

1. America had to be integrated into a European view of the world

Martin Waldseemüller, Universalis Cosmographia (1507) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Ct000725C-wh012_5-Universalis_cosmographia_secundum_Ptholomaei_traditionem_et_Americi_Vespucii_alioru-m-que_lustrationes..gif

2. Spanish America was the early center of the colonial Americas

Abraham Ortelius, in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1584)

“Orbis Terrarum,”

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/OL/197/Map+-+Page+1+-+TYPVS+ORBIS+TER/

“Novis Orbis”

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/OL/2308/Map+-+Page+1/

“La Florida” http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/OL/413/Map+++Page+1+++LA+FLORIDA+++GVASTECAN+++PERVVIAE+AVRIFERAE///

3. America was not an empty space

John White, Theodor de Bry, Thomas Hariott, Americae pars, Nunc Virginia (1590)

http://www.cummingmapsociety.org/1590_AmericaeParsNuncVirginia_White_deBry12.jpg

John Smith, Virginia (1624, orig. 1612)

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/s19.2.jpg

4. The colonial world was not a prelude to the United States

John Seller, A Chart of the Caribe Islands in “The Blathawayt Atlas” (1683)

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/middle_america/caribbean/caribbean_Before1750.html (Scroll down the page)

John Farrer Ould Virginia 1584 (c.1650)

http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwedo/archweek/2006/selection.asp?PG=4&ID=7&IMG=30

Samuel Holland, A Sketch of the country between New Hampshire and Nova Scotia (c1770)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:7:./temp/~ammem_xIaE::

5. Slave societies were central to early America

Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, A Map of the Most Inhabited Part of Virginia (1775)

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/2038

William De Brahm, Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia (1757)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

6. British America was an array of distinctive regions.

Herman Moll, A New and Exact Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain on the Continent of North America (1715)

http://www.usm.maine.edu/~maps/exhibit2/31.jpg

Robert Morden and William Berry, A New Map of the English Plantations in America, both Continent and Islands in “The Blathwayt Atlas” (1683)

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=118199&imageID=53904&total=20&num=0&word=Morden%2C%20Robert&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=4&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=14&e=w

7. American spaces were constantly changing

Antonio de Arrendondo, Descipcion Geographica (mapa) de la parte que los españole possen actualmente ed el continente de la Florida(1742)

http://scholar.library.miami.edu/floridamaps/view_image.php?image_name=dlp00020000410001001&group=cartographer

Jacques Nicolas Bellin, Carte Reduite Des Costes De La Louisiane et de la Floride(1764)

http://scholar.library.miami.edu/floridamaps/view_image.php?image_name=dlp00020000610001001&group=cartographer

Thomas Jefferys, “East Florida, from Surveys made since the last Peace” in William Stork, Account of East Florida 3d edition (1796)

http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/maps/pages/3500/f3588/f3588z.htm

Thomas Wright, A Map of Florida and Georgia (1763)

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1763w7.jpg

8. Colonization was a process of occupation

William De Brahm, Map of South Carolina and a Part of Georgia (1757)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

9. America was a contested space

Thomas Jeffreys, A New Map of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island (1755)

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~29569~1141032:A-new-map-of-Nova-Scotia-and-Cape-B

John Mitchell, A Map of British and French Dominions in North America (1755)

http://www.usm.maine.edu/~maps/mitchell/full2.jpeg