Seeing the Past
Through Maps
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, a DU professor takes us on a visual tour of American history.
Maps play a rich yet often overlooked role in history. Whether made for military strategy or urban reform, to encourage settlement or to investigate disease, maps both reflect and mediate change. They give meaning to information by translating it into visual form, and in so doing reveal decisions about how the world ought to be seen.
In her book, “A History of America in 100 Maps,” excerpts from which are shown here, DU history professor Susan Schulten offers an eclectic and selective discussion of the many ways in which maps have been used in the past. Each map included in this volume grew out of contemporary circumstances and concerns, and as such has the potential to both illuminate and complicate our understanding of history. Examined in context and with care, these artifacts offer unrivaled windows into the past.
Schulten, a nationally recognized scholar of American history who has taught at DU since 1996, is currently serving as the Colorado state historian. Her appointment coincides with Colorado’s celebration of its 150th year of statehood, just as the U.S. marks its 250th year of independence.
An Alternative Vision for the American West
With the Homestead Act of 1862, Americans flooded into the Great Plains and the interior West after the Civil War. One of the few to voice skepticism about the capacity of the West to support large-scale farming was John Wesley Powell, director of the United States Geological Survey. In the 1870s, he began to stress that the western half of the country could not be farmed unless it was irrigated. In 1890, Powell used this map to urge Congress to organize settlement and administration of the West not around the logic of the grid, but around watersheds that he distinguished with brilliant color. Powell’s vision of planned growth proved too disruptive to existing patterns and practices. Yet his map remains a challenging reminder of paths not taken and a very different vision for the American West.
“Arid Region of the United States Showing Drainage Districts,” in John Wesley Powell, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, United States. Department of the Interior. 51st Congress, Second Session, v.IV, part II, 1890. 35.5 x 26.5 cm.
To the Brink of Extinction
In 1886, the Smithsonian Institution sent its chief taxidermist, William Temple Hornaday, to Montana to bring back specimens of the American bison. There he discovered a species that was nearly extinct, thanks to factors including the Spanish introduction of horses, aggressive hunting with advanced firearms, and the advent of transcontinental railroads. With the help of geographer Henry Gannett and zoologist Joel Allen, Hornaday visualized the devastation of the animal in this map. Red numbers indicate the date by which the bison could no longer be found in any given geography; blue and green circles highlight the few small bands that remained. Hornaday’s map exposed Americans to the dark side of western development, and sparked a discussion around conservation that flourished under Theodore Roosevelt and other influential leaders.
“Map Illustrating the Extermination of the American Bison. Prepared by W. T. Hornaday.” Compiled under the direction of Henry Gannett. In Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889.) A.S. 910. 61 x 58 cm.
Revolt
In the spring of 1970, opposition to the Vietnam War reached a fever pitch, especially on college campuses. On April 30, President Nixon announced air strikes to destroy the Cambodian bases from which the communists were operating against South Vietnam. Within two days, a National Strike Committee had been organized, and another two days later, 11 eastern universities published an open editorial calling for a nationwide student strike. In an era before digital communication, the sheer pace of these efforts reflected the astonishing grassroots coordination that is captured on this map. Most likely produced by activists at Stanford University, it locates more than 100 campuses where students had pledged to boycott classes on May 6. The sheer volume of the protests convinced many across the country that the war was unwinnable.
Map of the National student strike, April 3 Movement (1970). Courtesy of Cornell University—PJ Mode Collection of Persuasive Maps. 43 x 56 cm.
Red and Blue America
The 1880 presidential race between Republican James Garfield and Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock was among the most competitive elections in American history. Garfield’s slim majority was visualized and analyzed in this innovative electoral map, issued in 1883 by Superintendent of the Census Henry Gannett. As one of the first efforts to picture electoral returns at the local level, the map stunned viewers. (Note that while current conventions represent Democrats in blue and Republicans in red, here those colors are reversed.) Gannett relegated the electoral map to the small inset at the lower right, contrasting its clear outcome with the more nuanced results visible in the larger map of individual voting districts. For the first time, Americans were able to see the complexity of the political landscape.
“Popular Vote. Ratio of Predominant to Total Vote, by Counties. 1880.” In Henry Gannett and Fletcher W. Hewes, Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States (New York: Scribner, 1883). 42 x 63 cm. Courtesy of Library of Congress.
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