Caribbean Maps Article

Old maps are often interesting because of the stories they tell. Explorers used maps as shorthand for recording what they had discovered. Sailors knew their very lives depended on the degree of accuracy of their maps. Merchants liked to brag about where they traded and so had beautifully decorated maps designed to hang in their offices. Early maps were printed on fine rag paper, much better suited to withstanding the rigors of time than today's paper; 400-year-old maps in relatively good condition are not uncommon.

This intriguing anomaly has fascinated map collectors for years. The California Map Society decided to pull together important historic maps as a state sesquicentennial project. Their 1999 publication, "California 49," included forty-nine such maps. Printed in only 1000 copies, it quickly sold out. You might look for a copy in your local or University library.

Recently we expanded the Society website (.org) to include images of six of these maps along with their accompanying descriptions as originally published. We tried to select maps we thought might be useful or intriguing. Each map has a story to tell.

The first of these maps is by Sebastian Munster and was printed from a woodblock less than 50 years after Columbus' voyage. North and South America are easily distinguishable as are the islands of the Caribbean. But California doesn't exist on this map and Japan is very close to the North American coast. The Strait of Magellan appears but so does the false sea of Verrazano. Wishful thinking brought hopes for one or more simple means to reach the treasures of the Orient.

The second map was created by Henry Briggs in 1625. This map is significant because it is among the first to show California as an island and to explain how this came into being. Near the lower left corner of the map Briggs wrote, "California sometimes supposed to be a part of ye western continent but since by a Spanish Charte taken by ye Hollanders it is found to be a goodly Ilande ..." This misconception flourished for eighty or more years.

Next is Nicholas Sanson's map of California drawn in 1657. Sanson, being French, did not fancy the flat north coast Briggs and others had portrayed, and invented the more picturesque crenulated northern shore. He also included the River del Norte, flowing from Lake Taos (presumably you've all been water-skiing on that imaginary lake), past Santa Fe and into the Gulf of California. Of course, in reality this was the Rio Grande, which flows eastward into the Gulf of Mexico.

The fourth map is that of Eusebio Francisco Kino, perhaps better known as Father Kino, showing his explorations of 1699-1701. Kino described the Colorado and Gila Rivers flowing into the northern end of the Gulf of California." His map printed in Paris in 1705 exploded the myth of California as an island.

The last two maps have jumped nearly 150 years forward in time to the era of the Gold Rush in California. Both are important maps in the history of our state.

Thomas Larkin's map of 1848 was the first widely distributed map to locate the gold region. Rushed to publication in Boston, it helped create a firestorm as people flocked to California to make their fortunes. Larkin had already made his, and used this map to firmly stake out property he had acquired on the upper Sacramento River.

While we generally think of the Gold Rush as a northern California event it also had enormous impact on Southern California. People streamed into Los Angeles as well as the Gold Region. Many wanted to buy land and the city fathers wanted to accommodate them. To do so the Military Governor told them they needed a survey and a map. At his suggestion US Army Lt. E. O. C. Ord was hired to stake out city streets and lots, determining the orientation of the city. The lots sold, the city council was happy, Ord was paid, and Los Angeles inherited an eastern tilted downtown street plan - still clearly marking the boundaries of the original pueblo on today's maps.

These examples present some of the romance of old maps. Of course, there are many more maps showing the changing face of our state and it's cities. Birds-eye views were very popular in the late 1800's and can give today's students a sense of community development.

Students may also enjoy discovering that all maps are distortions of reality; road maps show highways much wider than they really are and cities are often shown as dots or circles, not as grids of streets and buildings. Yet the use of these symbols helps us visualize the larger picture. Too much detail would confuse many maps. So even today's maps are shorthand representations, able to include lots of understandable information in a relatively small space.

Most of us are familiar with world maps having north at the top and the Americas on the left side. However, Japanese maps usually show Japan at the center with the Americas shifted to the right side of the map. You may even be able to find an Australian map centered on that continent with south at the top. This type of map is known in Australia as a "corrective map." Old European maps often had Jerusalem at the top of the map, so for them, east was up. Which is right? Well actually, they're all right, depending on your point of view.

Maps are a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional world. Airline pilots fly "Great Circle Routes," big curving lines on our maps which turn out to be a straight line on the only truly proportioned maps which we call globes. Knowing where they are on our globe is very important to Moslems since they want to pray facing Mecca several times a day. Maps called Qibla maps are produced for just that purpose. You might ask students to think about in which direction they should pray to face Mecca from Southern California. Probably few will guess about 15 degrees east of north, but that is the correct answer.

When I have the opportunity to speak to students I like to ask, "Who can name the easternmost, westernmost, southernmost and northernmost states of the United States?" The northernmost is easy for them because they have always known Alaska and Hawaii as part of our country. However, many may not remember Hawaii as being far to the south of Florida. Westernmost, of course, is Alaska, stretching far out along the Aleutian Island chain. Ah, but which state holds the title of easternmost? Most will think Maine until studying a world map shows the Aleutian Islands extending beyond the 180th Meridian and hence making Alaska not only the northernmost and westernmost - but also the easternmost of the United States. You might even like to try that one on your principal.

Maps can be wonderful learning tools. The Internet is alive with places to see all sorts of maps. One of the best places to look is a website maintained by a Professor of Geography at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Raoul Oddens started putting it together out of curiosity; Odden's Bookmarks has grown to over 21,000 sites that can be searched in a number of ways. Try it yourself at ..nl.

Another wonderful site for mainly 19th century California maps is .com. David Rumsey has a passion for maps and a marvelous system for capturing them digitally in detail. It takes some time to download the tools necessary to use his site but the wealth of material makes it worth while.

Another great resource is the Library of Congress site, .gov. Look for the American Memory, Geography Collection, but understand the preponderance of maps will be of the eastern . Both David Rumsey and the Library of Congress use special compression techniques that are expensive but wonderful. Our California Map Society website images can't compare, but they may show you what can be done with a simple handheld digital camera and some interesting maps.

I hope I've offered you some useful teaching tools. Remember the California Map Society has members across California. Many of them would be happy to talk with students about their maps so don't hesitate to ask. Our website also has information about our meetings, open to anyone for a nominal registration fee.

Bill Warren is a retired engineer with a lifelong interest in maps. He is a past president of the California Map Society and their current newsletter editor. His personal map collection includes nearly two hundred pre-1900 maps. As a volunteer he has spent the last two years cataloguing some of the printed map holdings of the Huntington Library. He also is working with local historical societies and museums in creating a Union Catalog of map collections in the San Gabriel Valley.