Post 4: Maps & Atlases



Maps & Atlases: Select two or three of the mapping resources from the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries (so, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s), and then consider ONE of these points of comparison.

• What sorts of information seems central to the map’s producer? What sort of information do you extrapolate about the audience? What surprises you about these maps?

  • Upon examining the 1590 map of Virginia, certain aspects such as water ways, access points to the sea/ ships, and natural geography seem central to this map. I also noticed a compass and a picture of a whale creature, which may serve to warn sailors about dangers in the water and threats to their ships. There is a crest in the top left hand corner of the map.

  • I was somewhat surprised to see the markings of native land on the map, but considering the time period, this makes sense to me. I think it was important for the makers of the map to be able to know the geography and territory that was native to Virginia because they needed to know the people they were trading and interacting with. The crest is a British Colonial crest which is indicative of what the map was used for and by who (probably to colonize the land and steal it’s resources).

Anthologies & Miscellanies: We’ve started to consider the ways in which people in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries (so, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s) gathered and circulated poetry and prose. Special Collections archives include numerous examples of these collections. Choose two or three volumes to compare, and then respond to ONE of these prompts.

• Look to see what they select. Are you familiar with any of these? Do they belong in your own lists of “great literature”? If you took AP Literature or a literature survey, were any of these selections included? Would you expect to find any in the Norton Anthology of World Literature or British Literature or American Literature, those definitive records of the undergraduate canon?

  • I examined the “Miscellaneous Poems” by Andrew Marvell. I noticed that this book was (most likely) medium sized, which would make it a good bookshelf item. The cover has a portrait of who appears to be the author (which makes him look prestigious). There is also a crest of the inside cover, which signifies the pride of England and tells the origin story of the author and his work. There are also sections that are dedicated to the audience and the “dialogue”, or discourse that is happening in the text. The pages are also fairly sparse, only including a few stanzas of poetry per page. This shows that the text was written with accessibility in mind for the reader. It is not too dense, but it is still for the educated and mature reader.

  • I would expect to see this in an AP literature class as an example of the poetic work done at the time. It is nice to be able to look at all of Marvell’s work as it is contained in one place.