Sherman’s Christmas gift to Lincoln
On December 22, 1864–150 years ago this week–Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln a brief but powerful message, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah.” Sherman...
Blog
Here we can continue to explore the relationship between maps and history. I welcome your comments, and your maps!
How Sherman’s march helped Lincoln win in 1864
We’ve just survived another election season, with the attendant (and often hyperbolic) claims that the nation’s future hinges on the outcome. In the aftermath, it seems fitting to recall another...
An imaginary map of temperance
In the archives of the American Antiquarian Society lies a strange and captivating map with an even more unlikely story. The map dates to 1838, though this copy was printed...
Schoolgirl maps from the early republic
I’ve been preoccupied lately with student manuscript maps, generally made by girls between 11 and 18 attending one of the many female academies of the American northeast between 1800 and 1830. “Map...
The twisted history of political mapping
We live in what is endlessly described as an era of unprecedented partisanship, with Americans polarized into red and blue camps and no convergence in sight. But much of the...
A radically different kind of west
In the decades after the Civil War, Americans rushed headlong into the west. By 1890 Kansas and Nebraska had over a million inhabitants, and over six million lived in the...
How an artist reinvented the map in WWII
More Americans came into contact with maps during the Second World War than in any previous moment in American history. From the elaborate and innovative inserts in the National Geographic to the...
An interactive map of slavery
Lincoln Mullen has just posted a wonderful interactive map of slavery in the United States. His inspiration begins with the 1861 Coast Survey map of slavery, which identified the ratio...
Mapping the progress of the Union Army
One of the most intriguing cartographic developments in the nineteenth century was the effort to map the past. Experiments with historical mapping can be found in the eighteenth century, but...
Mapping early Colorado and the University of Denver
On February 25 I delivered an address on the University of Denver campus to commemorate the 150th anniversary of our institution. My goal was to go beyond the history of...