![]() ![]() ![]() Nor is it unusual-particularly for an essayist-to excavate thick webs of connection, plunge into the densest of the fine print, stare unblinking at the finest lines of eyeball-bending detail. Memory of life without settlers around is even, among certain elders I’ve met and more I haven’t, a chapter of their lived experience.īut with respect to the map: it’s not unusual-particularly for an essayist-to take an interest in the blank spaces, to gravitate toward the omissions, the unknowns. It undergirds the present political moment here (land claims). ![]() Some generations have passed since that privacy was crushed, but the memory is like bedrock. The Yukon Territory possesses in living consciousness a very, very recent history of profound privacy from the industrial west. I think of this map as an object framing a moment of colonial knowledge, an object exposing the bounds of that knowledge, an object that visually invokes the peace and freedom of blank space as visual counterpoint to the swarming pen marks of colonial presence. Indigenous sovereignty that persisted, and persisted, and persisted, as imperial colonialism encroached, and encroached, and encroached. That blank space humbles me to my core because it represents a deep wealth, the wealth of sovereignty. And if the eye wishes, let the gaze settle upon the blank of uncharted lands in the north. So let the eye squint at all those southern waterways let the eye rush along the dark spine of the Rockies from south to north and from north to south. Yet as you can see, imperial-colonial-settlers had their cartographic fingers all up in the Americas when this map was made in 1822. The entire region of the Yukon, where I presently live and write, is utterly blank. The daughter of cartographer Christopher Colles, Eliza became America’s first copper plate engraver at just 13 years old.Here is one thing lyric essayists know: the eye is drawn to white space. That copperplate was then pressed onto paper to print a map.Īccording to van den Hoonaard, one of the most notable engravers was Eliza Colles. According to Tyner, early women engravers would scribe images and words of a map into a plate of copper. The use of colors became so popular that, in later times, ladies of high society would participate in coloring maps as a hobby.Ĭome the 18th century, women began to work in a new part of map production: engraving, an early form of printing. In fact, during the 16th century, cartographer Gerardus Mercator (the father of the Mercator projection) employed a group of women as colorists for his mapmaking. "Color is pretty useful on maps to distinguish things." "One of the jobs that women had was applying color to the map," Tyner said. According to van den Hoonaard, although men were the ones with the means to own the businesses, women were often hired to perform artistic aspects of the production. (Gerardus Mercator / Royal Geographical Society)Īs the demand for maps soared, cartographic companies swooped in to provide their services. Made by cartographer Mercator, who hired women to color his maps. Ladies of map productionĪ 16th-century map of Asia with the eastern corners of Europe and Africa. In the centuries that followed, maps gained even greater importance as more empires sought to navigate new worlds - and women were there to help document those discoveries. ![]() According to van den Hoonaard, she was the first female manuscript illuminator, and she blended the artistic style of her Christian faith with that of the Muslim invaders in her maps. According to Tyner, the mapmaker was the sister of the prime minister, and she embroidered a map on silk to make the map more permanent so that it wouldn't fade or get wet and vanish.Īnother early woman cartographer was a Spanish nun in the 10th century. One early woman cartographer lived in 4th-century China. The impact of these women cartographers was most evident in their artistic innovations. "Some of the earlier maps were indeed by men, but behind them were cohorts of women," said Will van den Hoonaard, retired professor of Sociology from the University of New Brunswick and author of "Map Worlds: a History of Women in Cartography". Pen-and-ink and watercolor map of the U.S., made by Mary van Schaack in ca. ![]()
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