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Heading West: Mapping the Territory 1540-1900
Alice Hudson
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| Seminar Introduction |
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In the mythology of the American frontier, it is usually the frontiersmen and heroic adventurers who get the glory. But the history of the American West is also the story of settlers, Native Americans, performers, fortune-hunters, military men, bureaucrats and cartographers. This seminar looks at one of these groups--the mapmakers--who chronicled the country's relentless march westward and captured the lay of the land on paper. Alice Hudson, chief of the map division of The New York Public Library, moves through time from Sebastian Münster's 1540 map of North and South America, showing a hoped-for (but imaginary) waterway from Europe to Asia; to the findings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and many other government-sponsored military and scientific surveys of the ninenteenth century; to maps of the railroad routes that by the end of the century brought order to the frontier. This seminar documents the routes of westward expansion, but through the maps also reveals much about the people and the land: the patterns of displacement of Native Americans, the frantic search for gold, and the attractions of new tourist destinations such as Yellowstone National Park.
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| Learning Objectives |
Identify key mapmakers and the types of organizations that commissioned maps of the American West. Describe European conceptions of the geography of America as depicted in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century maps and how and why the maps changed in content by 1800. Discover what maps can reveal about the settlement and displacement of Native Americans in the West. Appreciate the role that the California gold rush had in the settlement and mapping of the West. - Recognize the role that the Federal Government and the development of the railways in the nineteenth century played in changing the demographics of United States.
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This material was derived from the exhibition, Heading West: Mapping the Territory, which was on view at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, from March 9-May 19,2001 All materials used in this seminar are from the collections of the New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Science Library. Copyright 2001 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. All rights reserved. All images used in the seminar are intended for personal or research use only. For reproduction or any other use of the image, contact NYPL Photographic Services & Permissions at permissions@nypl.org.
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| Technical Requirements |
To appreciate this seminar experience, it is critical that you have the appropriate software, plug-ins, and network connections. Please take the time to download the latest versions of the plug-ins mentioned below if you do not already have them.
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