Panoramic Maps

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Historical Context and Literature: Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Hannibal, Missouri, Albert Ruger, Cartographer, 1869.

Panoramic maps may be used to enhance the study of works composed by authors who lived and wrote during the period covered by Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929. One such author is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, who was raised in Hannibal, Missouri. Referred to as "America's greatest humorist," Twain wrote many stories about life along the Mississippi River, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Life on the Mississippi. There are a number of interesting similarities between panoramic maps and Mark Twain's books. Each medium benefited from improvements in print technology, and both were often sold through subscription. Perhaps the most remarkable similarity between the two is in the extent to which the writer, Mark Twain, and the panoramic cartographer, Albert Ruger, depicted certain colorful aspects of Hannibal, Missouri.

When I was a boy, there was one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. . . . Once a day a cheap gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis, and another downward from Keoduk. . . . After all these years I can still picture that old time to myself now, just as it was then: the white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer's morning; the streets empty, or pretty nearly so; one or two clerks sitting in front of the Water Street stores, . . . a sow and a litter of pigs loafing along the sidewalk doing a good business in watermelon rinds and seeds; two or three lonely little freight piles scattered about the levee; a pile of skids on the slope of the stone-paved wharf, and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shadow of them; two or three wood flats at the head of the wharf, but nobody to listen to the peaceful lapping of the wavelets against them; the great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide along, shining in the sun; the dense forest away on the other side; the point above the town, and the point below . . . Presently a film of dark smoke appears above one of those remote points: instantly a Negro drayman, famous for his quick eye and prodigious voice, lifts up the cry, "S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'!"

Page 62
Life on the Mississippi.

• What details from Twain's description of Hannibal, Missouri can you also find in the map? What are the similarities and differences between the description and the map? What aspects or characteristics of Hannibal does each artist emphasize? What overall effect do you think that each artist was trying to achieve? Is one depiction more idealized than the other? Do the two items convey the same overall sense of place?
• Regional writing flourished in the United States during much of the time period covered by these panoramic maps. Both the regional writers and the panoramic mapmakers depicted diverse locales in the United States. Research more about America's regional writers. Who were they? Which regions did they write about?


• What might have caused this interest in regionalism, manifested both in maps and literature during this period? Can you find other evidence of this interest in regionalism in other items or events from the era?

Historical Context and Literature: Emily Dickinson (1810-1886)

To the right is a map of Amherst, Massachusetts in 1886, the year of Emily Dickinson's death. If you click on the map and zoom in you will be able to locate a number of sites related to Dickinson's life. See, for example, her home at 280 Main Street, and the house next door of her brother Austin and her sister-in-law and friend Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. See the First Congregational Church that Dickinson attended as a child, the railroad she alludes to in her poetry, and the West Cemetery where she is buried. The contemporary online map, Walking Tour of Amherst!, originally developed through the University of Massachusetts, will help you confirm your sitings of locations related to the life of Emily Dickinson.

Amherst, Massachusetts, Lucien R. Burleigh, Mapmaker, 1886.

• If you had been a poet in Amherst, where would you have chosen to write? For example, your home, the public library, the university, the woods, or the commons?
• What were the restraints that woman would have faced in being a writer in the mid-1800s? Why?

A woman who by her thirties had stopped leaving her home, Emily Dickinson found a very wide world within the confines of her small town, her home, and herself. Her writings, in sharp contrast to Mark Twain's, with their rich descriptions and dialects of the external world, depict an inner, metaphysical world through symbolism. Populated by the recurring symbols of bees, flowers, colors, and sunrises, this world takes form in Dickinson's poetry. Explore Dickinson's use of symbolism by creating a map of one of her poems or of her inner world as represented in multiple poems. You may begin with the poems below. What symbols appear in a poem? What symbols appear throughout her poetry? What actions and movement take place in the poem or in her inner world? How can you convey this movement in a map? What are the spacial relations between objects in the poems? Use your imagination and keep in mind that in its broadest sense, a map is just a representation of something and a metaphor for organizing and depicting information and ideas.

Literary Landscapes

Being a Literary Map of the United States Frederic Dornseif, Cartographer G.P. Putnam's Sons,1942. "Language of the Land: Journey into Literary America."

Whether Mark Twain's colorful telling of life on the Mississippi River or Emily Dickinson's recounting of nature's wonders in Massachusetts, these authors have described the American landscape to evoke a strong sense of place. The online exhibition "Language of the Land: Journey into Literary America," contains literary maps that present pictures of the U.S. literary heritage. The emphasis of these maps is not on geographical detail and accuracy so much as on depicting the history of literature in the United States. For example, one literary map of the United States associates certain authors and titles with different states through the use of words and images. Use examples from this exhibit as well as panoramic maps to create your own literary maps.

You may create maps that convey the literary history of a particular state, region, or city. Search Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929 for a map of your location. Print and trace the important part of the map and then overlay icons that convey the literary history of the area. Expand the exercise by representing the cultural history of a place, including its writers, musicians, visual artists, and their work. It may be easier to map the cultural history of a more focused location, such as a city. Search American Memory on the name of a city or state to find items that pertain to that location's literary or cultural history. You may choose to represent some of these items on your map.

Portrait of Bessie Smith,1936, Born in Chattanooga, 1894. Creative Americans: Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964.

Chattanooga, Tennessee, Seen from Bragg Hill, 1871.

Summit of Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga Vicinity, 1864(?). Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865.

On the way to Chattanooga I had telegraphed back to Nashville for a good supply of vegetables and small rations, which the troops had been so long deprived of. . . . The men were soon reclothed and also well fed, an abundance of ammunition was brought up, and a cheerfulness prevailed not before enjoyed in many weeks. Neither officers nor men looked upon themselves any longer as doomed. . . . I do not know what the effect was on the other side, but assume it must have been correspondingly depressing.

Chapter 40,
U.S. Grant, Personal Memoirs.

• Try making a panoramic literary map of your home town or city. What would you note on your map? Where are local poetry readings and literary events held? Would you include movie theaters, local recording studios, dance clubs or cyber-cafes?
  

Imagination and Description

Panoramic maps and literature have a lot in common: each depict a setting at a particular point in time and rely on the reader's imagination to enhance their depiction. Each has additional meaning when used to illustrate the historical moment in which they were created. When used comparatively, they may also help us to see the changes that take place in a particular locale over time.

St. Paul, Minnesota, Looking West from Dayton's Bluff, Brown, Treacy & Co., 1893.

On a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas camped two generations ago, a girl [Carol Kennicott] stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern sky. She saw no Indians now; she saw flour mills and the blinking windows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.

• Use your imagination to create your own fictitious town. Name your town's streets and decide how many schools, churches, businesses, stores, parks, and factories it will have. Where will these buildings be located and how will the parks be landscaped? Or, erite about your own town: recount the major events that have happened there, the people who have lived there, and the positives and negatives of residing in your town.


• Choose a novel (or short story) and analyze the influence of its setting on the characters, the story, and the story's resolution. Are you able to find sensory details and dialogue that reveal the influence of a place on the plot?


• Some people claim that all history is a story told from the victor's point of view. What is Minnesota today was once the territory of the Chippewa and the Sioux. After doing some research, try your hand at writing the story of one tribe's village during the mid-1800s and draw a panoramic map to illustrate your narrative. Images from the collection Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian, may help you to generate ideas about how a Chippewa or Sioux might have mapped his or her home and its surrounding lands.

Plots and Plans and Travel Writing

The word "plot" derives from the Old English word meaning "a piece of land." Use these panoramic maps as a jumping off point to "plot and plan" a journey across the United States.

Imagine you are taking a journey during the timeframe represented by the collection Panoramic Map, 1847-1929. Use the browse feature of this collection to select two panoramic maps: one of a city from which you will start your journey, and the other of a city that will be your destination. Use these maps, and perhaps others that depict places along the way, to write about a journey. If you are having trouble selecting either a place from which to begin or a destination, just choose one of the two examples below.

• What is the year of your journey?


• Why are you making this journey?


• What route will you take to get to your destination?


• What form of transportation will you choose? Will you travel by steamer, wagon, or stagecoach? Will you go on foot as did Johnny Appleseed, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, or John Muir?
  

Fort Collins, Colorado, Merritt Dana Houghton, Cartographer, 1865?

San Francisco, California, Charles B. Gifford, Lithographer, 1864.

• What places will you visit in the towns and countryside along the way? Where will you sleep?


• Where and what will you eat?


• How much money will you need to take the journey? Might you barter your work for shelter or food?


• Who might you expect to meet?


• What local, national, and international news will you discuss with others along the route? What political and social issues will you discuss?


• What forms of entertainment might you find? Will you carry a fiddle, harmonica, or another musical instrument with you for entertainment?
  

Davenport, Iowa, Henry Wellge, Cartographer, 1888.

Gorham, New Hampshire, George Norris, Cartographer, 1888.

• Would you write letters, keep a diary, send a telegram? What would you write about along the way?
  
• Would you read during your journey? What would you read?
• Where will you live or stay when you reach your destination?
  
• What kind of map, or maps, might be useful as you travel?

The Latest News: Journalism and the Diffusion of Information

The diffusion of information is important to the cohesiveness of a culture and a society. How (and how fast) did news travel from place to place between the years 1847 and 1929, the timeframe of the panoramic map collection? Steamboats, railroads, the Pony Express, and the telegraph all played significant roles in disseminating information and, apart from the Pony Express, all are depicted in the panoramic maps. If you look closely at some of the later maps, you will also see telephone wires and motor vehicles. Use panoramic maps to consider the role of these technologies in disseminating information and the growth of popular culture.

Pictured below are two panoramic maps of Sacramento, California -- one just before and one just after the flood of 1850. How long would it have taken for folks in San Francisco, California to have learned about this disastrous flood? How long would it have taken for the news to have reached New York or Washington, D.C.? Business was booming in Sacramento at the close of 1849. Look closely at these maps to see what was left of its "over 800 framed buildings, besides the tents" by mid-January, 1850.

Sacramento City, California, . . . with the Sierra Nevada in the Distance, Drawn by G. V. Cooper December 20, 1849.

Sacramento City, California As It Appeared during the Great Inundation, Drawn from Nature by Geo. W. Casilear & Henry Bainbridge, January 1850.

Pretend that you are a reporter and write a feature story concerning the Sacramento flood for the newspaper of one of the towns represented in the panoramic maps. Use the maps of Sacramento to write a descriptive account of the town in January, 1850 and to provide an assessment of the changes since December, 1849.

• What details will you include?
• Who will you interview?
• What angle will you take? What is the relevance of the flood to the town for which you are writing?
• How will you get your story to press in 1850?
  
• How would you have gotten your story to press if you were a reporter in 1929? What new technologies would have been used for the dissemination of information? How much faster would information have travelled in 1929 as compared to 1850?
• In 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and Levi Strauss introduced the "bibless overall" in San Francisco, California. How long was it before copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were being read in Washington, D.C. or Sacramento, California? How long did it take before the "bibless overall" (also known as "blue jeans" or "jeans") became popular across the nation? Were jeans being worn in Shasta, California by 1856, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory in 1870, South Bend, Indiana in 1890, or Port Jervis, New York by 1920? Can you use American Memory to document any portion of this all-American fashion trend?
  
• How might panoramic maps have contributed to the dissemination of popular culture?

Diaries, Oral Histories, and Other Narratives

Panoramic maps may help us to visualize information gleaned from a variety of narratives, including oral history interviews, old family letters, and diaries. Your local library, and possibly your own family archive may contain historical materials that mention towns or cities that are rendered in panoramic maps from this collection. For example, this map of Lafayette, Indiana depicts the town at the same time in which events described in a narrative from American Life Histories, 1936-1940 took place. Zoom into the map and locate sites mentioned in the narrative (or make an educated guess as to where they are).

Lafayette, Indiana, A. Ruger, Mapmaker, 1868.

• Does your family have written materials handed down by past generations? If so, you might check the panoramic map collection to see if there are maps of sites referred to in these documents.
• Read an historical novel and search the panoramic map collection to see if you can locate buildings that are referred to in the story. To what extent did the writer invent the locale of the story? To what extent did the author use historical facts to depict the town?
• Imagine that you are a Civil War soldier, a riverboatman, or a traveling performer. Write a postcard home to your family telling about your experiences: someone you have met, an object you have seen, or a story you have heard. Be creative!
• Search the American Memory collections, American Life Histories, 1936-1940, California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900, Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920, or Pioneering the Upper Midwest, ca. 1820-1910, for materials with which to investigate a panoramic map.