I am enamored of the idea of maps. It is a delight to encounter older examples of maps from the time before everything has been logged in minute detail. A favorite, and a good precursor description of the North America that the Constable brothers would encounter, is the pithily titled, A New and Correct Map of the Whole World: Shewing the Situation of Its Principal Parts, Viz the Oceans, Kingdoms, Rivers, Capes, Ports, Mountains, Woods, Trade Winds, Monsoons, Variation of The Compass, Climates, &c. with the most remarkable tracks of the bold attempts which have been made to find out the north east & north west passages. The projection of this map is call’d Mercator’s the design is to make it useful both for land and sea. And it is laid down with all possible care, according to the newest and most exact observations by Herman Moll Geographer. 1719. I am fond of this one for multiple reasons. By today’s standards it is anything but exact. It features California merrily bobbing off the coast as a giant island and New Holland (Australia) connected to New Guinea as several of the quirkier features. It marks the legacies of the rising European empires in the new world in matching colors—Britain in pink, France—green, and Spain—yellow, with the territories they claim outlined in matching colors. Since these are hand colored no two copies are identical—this one , marks Canada as wholly French (Green), whereas the copy in the Amon Carter Museum collection shows the Hudson’s Bay region in British pink, charting the claims of the Hudson’s Bay Company for their fur trapping industry.

What it also features are elements that we don’t often see in our commonly used contemporary maps which solely focus on geography. Maps can show more than just, “this is next to that,” in the way we think of this today. In the case of the Moll map, it includes what historians call spatial histories. This idea is that maps are not just visualizations of space, but also time and as result history. Historians study time and maps are an ideal way to reinforce or challenge our understanding of how events play out. In the Moll map, he marks chronological events—“Here C. Hudson Wintered, 1610,” cultural notes, “Many Villages on the Islands,” indigenous communities, “Eskimaux,” the European powers making claims to the land, as well as “Parts Unknown.” He does not intend it, but he also captures the dynamic of empire. As a British cartographer, his depictions of the Crown’s colonies are fairly detailed and complete, it is only in the territories of competing empires that egregious errors creep in. Moll is relying on second hand or stolen information—nobody is interested in helping their competitors. By the time Moll makes his map, the Spanish have already amended the California error on their maps.

In total, these tell us stories of relationships, of potential meetings, exchanges, and conflicts as well as events unknown or yet to be made. The Constable’s journey takes place nearly one hundred years later, but they too are encountering and creating these stories. Our mapping project hopes to make sense of their written text through spatial history visualizations to tell a more complete and challenging history.