The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860

Does our world of Google Maps, GPS (Global Positioning System), GIS (geographic information system), and other mapping tools feel uniquely modern? It turns out we have more in common with early Americans than many realize. The ubiquity of maps, at least, is nothing new, as Martin Brückner shows in his fascinating, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated new book. Brückner is as interested in the ideological or symbolic power of maps as he is in their materiality. Following their “biography” from production through consumption and use, Brückner sees maps as inherently social objects with a life of their own. He begins “at the intersection of mapmaking and ... print capitalism,” tracing three modes of map production (p. 23). First came the artisanal stage: luxury maps produced by a self-funded single author, with much of the work outsourced to engravers and printers. In the manufactured stage, a better-capitalized publisher centralized tasks such as drafting, editing, coloring, and engraving to produce a “palette of maps” sharing common material and design elements (p. 52). The third mode, industrial, brought major changes in technology, especially in papermaking, lithography, and the steam-powered printing press, resulting in a profusion of low-cost maps

Aesthetics · Art · Capitalism · Cartography · Geography · Ideology · Materiality (auditing · Political science · Visual arts · Archaeology and Natural History · Computer Science · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography