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Cartography Enthusiasts,
This is the last chance to reserve your spot for the May 20th Conference at the
Library of Congress (the conference is free and open to the public):
Re-imagining the US Civil War: Reconnaissance, Surveying, and Cartography
The schedule follows:
Coffee: 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Morning Session: 9:30 a.m. to noon
Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond, will
present "Hidden Patterns of the Civil War." Mapping, broadly understood, can
help reveal complex patterns that are otherwise invisible. In a context as
vast, varied and dynamic as the landscape of the American Civil War, all the
tools at one's disposal should be used to gain a sense of proportion and
change. This presentation will demonstrate several such tools, mapping not
only military history but also language, politics and the actions of enslaved
people.
Susan Schulten, professor of history at the University of
Denver, will present "Mapping the Strength of the Rebellion." The sectional
crisis prompted several uses of cartography, both on and off the battlefield.
Some of the most original of these maps attempted to measure the strength of
the rebellion. Maps of cotton production and the slave population exemplify
this new purpose of cartography, designed to assess not just the landscape but
the population and its resources. These maps represent different moments of the
secession crisis and the ensuing war, but also the shifting uses of cartography
in American life.
Richard Stephenson, a former map librarian at the Library of Congress, will
present "We Were Profoundly Ignorant of Our Country: The Struggle to Provide
Accurate Maps During the U.S. Civil War." At the start of the Civil War, much
of the United States had not been mapped with the accuracy needed for
successful military campaigns. Stephenson provides an historical analysis of
the struggle to acquire the new geographical information necessary to provide
maps to commanders in the field and the innovations developed by cartographers
in the post-1859 period.
Afternoon Session: 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
John Cloud, historian at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, will discuss "Mapping the New Coasts of War." The Civil War
was an entirely novel experience in American life and novel demands on
cartography were called for in order to capture the event. The staff of the
U.S. Coast Survey re-purposed many traditional aids to navigation and created
many new ones to assist mariners and to help determine strategic aspects of
locations. As the war progressed, they also re-defined the coast in
military-political terms, mapping the shifting boundaries between Union and
Rebel domains, in an exercise never attempted before, or after, the war.
Adrienne Lundgren, senior photographic conservator at the
Library of Congress, will present "Shedding a Little Light: Early Photographic
Techniques Used to Reproduce Maps." This presentation will chronicle the first
paper photographic printing process and its use in the reproduction of maps.
During the Civil War, this technique became an important method for
distributing updated maps quickly and efficiently. While often described in
the period literature, the terminology surrounding these processes can be
confusing. Variations in the technique will be described as well as methods to
identify these unusual artifacts. Maps from the Library of Congress
collections will be featured.
Robert Mergel, a reenactor in the guise of a Union surveyor,
will explain and demonstrate the surveying and cartographic methods of the
period, using original equipment and describing experiences in the field. He
will review the mapmaking of a selected group of Union Topographical Engineers
(Topogs) through their personal records, examples of their work and
observations by colleagues. The group includes well-known Topogs at the time,
such as Gouverneur K. Warren and George Gordon Meade, and lesser-known Topogs,
such as William Emory Merrill, Orlando M. Poe and George A. Custer. Particular
emphasis will be placed on the Peninsula Campaign and the Siege of Chattanooga
as examples of early war-mapping attempts and the later field-mapping
techniques learned "under fire." Also, the strategic use of maps by W.T.
Sherman during his march to the sea will be examined. Selected examples of the
equipment will be available for viewing.
Reception: 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For reservations simply email
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Hope to see you there.
John Hessler
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Senior Cartographic Librarian
Geography and Map Division
Library of Congress
202-707-7223
Website: www.warpinghistory.blogspot.com
A map is a sustained attempt upon an unattainable goal, the complete
comprehension by
an individual of a tract of space that will be individualized into a place by
that attempt.
--Tim Robinson, Interim Reports From
Folding Landscapes
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