First Nations Map Used by Lewis and Clark

I wanted to do a quick post, which is really a glorified reference to this post over at the Map Room Blog about a historically significant map made by a First Nations person named Too Né for Lewis and Clark in 1805. 

I can't find a much better quality image of this map, and it's hard to make out much detail, but I've read that it shows the course of the Missouri river and a number of different first nations. It also shows, in a few places, Lewis and Clark holding council. 

I don't have much to add to this post other than what's on the Map Room Blog. There is something about it though, that bears a very strong resemblance to this map, also drawn by a first nations person about 45 years earlier. It's interesting to consider if it would look different if it were made by a European and if the similarity in style between these two different first-nations maps has to do with a common way of seeing the world.

Yiddish Map of Palestine, 1939

Yiddish is a Germanic language which borrows words from Hebrew and is written in the Hebrew Alphabet. It's an old language and was historically spoken by Jews in Eastern and Central Europe. The number of speakers declined as a result of the Holocaust, but it remains the vernacular in many orthodox Jewish communities in Israel and elsewhere and has made somewhat of a cultural renaissance as evidenced by the popularity of things like this.

I had the good fortune to be offered a number of Yiddish books from an elderly relative who was downsizing. Among those books was "der algemeiner encyclopedia", the General Encyclopedia, published in Yiddish, in a number of volumes first in Paris, as of 1939 and later in New York.

1939 may have been the time in history with the most Yiddish speakers on the planet, before their numbers were drastically reduced by Nazi evil. These volumes are contemporary with that moment in history and they contain some Yiddish language maps. I'm not sure I'd ever seen one before and now I've discovered several of them. I wanted to write about them here, one at a time. I'll do my best to translate and explain what they are. They give fascinating insight into what the Jewish community found important at a moment in time when Nazism was on the rise, and when there were split allegiances within the Jewish community between various labour and communist movements, religious movements and the Jewish National movement, today known as Zionism.

The first map is in the "Jewish History" section of the encyclopedia and is titled "Palestine, in the Time of the Jewish Kingdom, a Historical Map". The caption at the bottom of the page reads: "A Historical Map of Palestine (Judah and Israel at the time of the splitting of the kingdom)". This relates to the biblical split between the 10 tribes of Israel and the other two tribes of Judah.

The legend on the map explains a bit about what we're looking at.

The areas shaded with dots are the the tribes of Israel while the one with solid lines are the tribes of Judah. The squiggly lines below the boxes are labeled as "vegn" which I would translate as ways, or routes or roads.

Above is an image of the map showing what today, would be parts of central and southern Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza.

Highlighted in Yellow is Jerusalem. The green square is around a place called Lod, which is essentially modern Tel Aviv. Israel's international airport is in Lod. Bethlehem is underlined in red, south of Jerusalem, Gaza city has a yellow square around it and underlined in blue is the ancient Jewish fortress of Massada. The Inclusion of Massada here is interesting, because it's not a place that appeared in the bible and only became famous afterwards as a symbol of Jewish nationalism. Its inclusion in this map is probably more of a nod to the Zionism of the time than to creating an accurate biblical map.

Finally, the kingdom of Edom is in a purple box and the kingdom of Moab underlined in purple.

I believe this map to be quite rare. I have almost never seen any Yiddish maps at all, much less old ones. It has a great deal of historic significance as well, not just for its content, but also for its purpose. It remains in the encyclopedia, which is in excellent condition, and I intend to keep it that way indefinitely.

Map of the states of North & South Carolina. (with) Plan of Charleston. London, published June 1 by I.T. Hinton & Simpkin & Marshall. Engraved & printed by Fenner Sears & Co. (1832)

On a trip to Asheville, North Carolina I was keen to come back with a map as a souvenier, but couldn't find anywhere in town that sold them. My wife and I therefore embarked on a bit of a goose (map) chase to out of the way antique shops on back roads 'till we came across a barn full of antiques. None of it was really interesting to me, and some of it fell into the category of "who would buy that"? Somehow, however, tucked in a corner, on a wall on the barn I found this fascinating specimen which I have since learned is properly titled: "Map of the states of North & South Carolina. (with) Plan of Charleston. London, published June 1 by I.T. Hinton & Simpkin & Marshall. Engraved & printed by Fenner Sears & Co. (1832)"

As always, a much higher quality, zoomable image of the map is available through Rumsey, but the one on that site is coloured, while mine is not.

The map comes from an atlas, as is clear from looking at it on Rumsey. The copy I have shows some interesting signs of that. There are a few small tears in it, where the binding must have been. It was framed when I bought it, so I have not been able to examine what's on its reverse, but close inspection shows that it must have been in a closed atlas for a long time before anyone ever opened it up. Each side of the page is slightly stained with an image of the opposite side. Look at these examples:

 

You may need to look quite closely, but there is definitely some staining to the paper from having likely been closed in a book, and possibly under pressure, for an extended period.

There are a few other elements of this map I find interesting. The Outer Banks, today a highly popular tourist destination, is very low on detail in this map. With an important exception, Roanoke Island. 

There's not much on or around Roanoke Island at this time to merit a mention, especially when other smaller islands nearby have nothing on them. Roanoke, however, is the site of the lost colony, and would likely have been of interest to Americans and British (the map was published in London) alike. The Island still presents mysteries to historians and holds an important place in American, British and North American history, so its inclusion is logical.

Another place that is in the Outer Banks and which also plays an important historical role but which is absent from this map, is Kitty Hawk, site of the first powered flight in 1903. Even today it's not a big town, and at the time, may simply not have existed at all, but it's impossible to imagine any map showing the Outer Banks after 1903 not at least indicating it's location.

I also find the inset plan of Charleston to be quite curious.

Obviously, Charleston of today is much larger, but this inset is interesting because it lacks so much detail. Two rivers are named, but there are no street names, so sites of interest, no names for the inlets or canals, the harbour, nothing. It's not even clear if the city ends at the northernmost east-west street, or if it just fades out of sight because of the size of the inset. The inset gives the view a sense of the size of the city, but otherwise, tells very little about it. I'm not sure why that is. Similarly missing is Fort Sumter, whose role in the history of the U.S. Civil War would likely guarantee its inclusion on any maps after 1860. In doing some research on this map I have found that this plan of Charleston predates any to appear in any American published atlas, which makes it somewhat unique.

Another point: I tend to research my maps as much as I can to get a sense of whether there are others out there and how much they sell for. I have only found one vendor of this map. It gives me the sense that what I have is quite scarce and perhaps a real treasure. It makes it that much more interesting to own, and I'm honored to be able to have it and care for it.

Wearable Maps: Newfoundland

I'm not the type to normally walk around in clothes adorned with maps, but after falling in love with Newfoundland on my first visit there, I could not resist this cool T-shirt map.

One of the things that makes this map so interesting is that it shows the names of some very small towns in Newfoundland. Also, it shows just how sparse the interior is, and how busy the coasts are. The size of the name on the map corresponds to the size of the town itself.

Really though, the best thing about this map, are the fun place names in Newfoundland. Some of which I've actually been to!

For example, on the image below, note Nickey's Nose Cove, Coffee Cove, and Leading Tickles.

Here we have Placentia, Dildo, Little Heart's Ease, and Bonavista, first sited by Cabot.

 Yes, these are all real places, and yes, they're beautiful. Get to Newfoundland, it's wonderful!

The Erdapfel Globe

Through the wonders of twitter I came across a fabulous bit of map history: the Erdapfel (German for Earth Apple), sometimes called the Globe of Martin Behaim. This is possibly the oldest surviving globe in the world and it was made in Nuremberg in 1492, the year Columbus sailed.

Here's a picture of it taken from this site:

There's a lot that's amazing about this map. For one, the creator of the map was quite well traveled for a person living in the late 15th Century. He personally visited Portugal and western Africa. He therefore received some of his knowledge for this globe first hand.

The globe also shows an empty expanse between the western part of Europe and the far east. That said, the map maker used some of the same sources as Columbus, or at the very least, he agreed with the Italian explorer that the world was round. 

The map contains some beautiful illustrations, like this huge whale and boats:

It also contains a great many inaccuracies, as can be imagined. Most notably, perhaps, Japan is further north than shown on this map. Malaysia is shown as a large peninsula and the shape of Africa is incorrect including the shape of Madagascar which is shown as north of Zanzibar.

Anyone who really wants to get into the fine details of this map can take a look at this very comprehensive history here, or this shorter summary, here.

Anyone who wants to see the globe, would have to go to the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg. It seems that in 2011 there was an effort to have the globe digitized, but I can't find any place online where it's viewable.

In all cases, this is an amazing piece of world history and map history and a real, visual time capsule of European understanding of the world at a time contemporary to Columbus.

The Map That Got Away: A 1632 French Map of Madeira, Portugal

Recently, I was in Funchal, on the Island of Madeira, Portugal, for work. I had limited free time, but hoped to buy a map of the place if I could find one. The bit of research I did was unable to give me any clues on where I may be able to find an antique map of the place, so on a whim, I stopped in at a shop catering to coin and stamp collectors to see if they may be able to help point me in the right direction.

The owner of the shop didn't have any encouraging news for me, but I noticed, on the wall in a corner of his shop, he did have a couple of maps, one appeared to be a Bellin. When I told him I wanted a local map, he went round to the back and after a few minutes, produced this.

I was pretty excited. It was listed as selling for 170 Euro, but the man in the shop told me he'd accept less if I paid cash (which I didn't have on me in any case).

I asked him if I could take a closer look at the map, which was in matting, and that's when the red flags started popping up. The map did look authentic and original. It was very clean, but the grain of the paper seemed authentic, there was no colour and it seemed right.

When I wanted to see the reverse, however, I realized that it was glued to the backing. That worried me. The owner, to my horror, started trying to pull the map loose from the glue. I was terrified it would tear. It didn't, but he was able to peel enough of it away that I could see a date on it, 1632.

Knowing that I couldn't buy it at that moment anyway, I went back to work and resolved to research it a bit. I came up empty handed. I couldn't find an image of this map, or even one similar to it anywhere. I knew it was probably French, had an approximate year but knew nothing more. So, I turned to twitter.

#antique #map lovers. I need some help. I'm in #Madeira & found this. It's glued to the matting (red flag?), but I was able to see the verso said "circa 1632". Anyone know anything about it/what it may be worth? Any advice on it? looks original and good quality. Thanks in advance pic.twitter.com/CtBaylLUh9

— Cory (@MyMappyPlace) May 23, 2018

It took some time, but I got a few helping hands from the twitterverse, and one, particularly helpful reply from the very helpful New York Public Library Map Division. I have no idea how they did this, but they found the origin of this map.

#antique #map lovers. I need some help. I'm in #Madeira & found this. It's glued to the matting (red flag?), but I was able to see the verso said "circa 1632". Anyone know anything about it/what it may be worth? Any advice on it? looks original and good quality. Thanks in advance pic.twitter.com/CtBaylLUh9

— Cory (@MyMappyPlace) May 23, 2018

Here's a digitized copy (of a microfilmed version) from Bibliothèque nationale de France, look for page 215:https://t.co/p9cpk6GHvV

— NYPL Map Division (@NYPLMaps) May 25, 2018

Incredible! They were right! There it was, on page 215 of the microfilm was the map from the store. It even confirmed another concern I had, that there was nothing printed on the reverse of this map. That's because it was on the last page of a chapter in an atlas, and page 216 was blank with a new section beginning on page 217.

My next concern, however, was the glue. My concerns were confirmed by NYPL Maps and also James Roy, who wrote:

The glue is bad news. It looks awfully clean - I'd certainly want to see the back to see what kind of restoration might be going on.

— James W. Roy (@Mapwallah) May 31, 2018

I was aware of all these concerns, but I thought, I like the map enough, that even if there are some concerns with it, if I can get it for a good price, it will be worth it.

It's a great looking piece, the ships, the perspective, the way the towns are drawn and the age of the map itself were all so appealing I couldn't believe my luck to have found it.

The problem was, the store had limited hours and I was extremely busy with work. I sent the owner an e-mail to see if I could convince him to stay open a bit longer, or to meet me on a day when he was closed, but the e-mail bounced back. Alas, I had to leave the island without a map.

So, I may have been saved by circumstances from buying a forgery or a map whose quality was greatly compromised by glue. I also learned there are some people out there on twitter who really know their maps and are very generous with their time and information. Still though, I can't help but feel that this one got away from me. I guess I will need to add a map of Madeira to my virtual wish-list!