Overview
I propose to study maps and mapmaking in early United States history with my students. I hope to foster their making a personal connection with the fundamental skills of mapmaking exercised by the people who recorded the topography, surveyed the land, and fixed the boundaries of the United States further westward with increasing precision and authority. While familiarity with historical surveyors and cartographers is an expected outcome for students, the primary focus will be to have students understand the inherent rhetoric of maps generated in the maps and charts of the westward expansion of the United States.
To create familiarity with the fundamental skills of constructing a map, students will practice and demonstrate fundamental surveying and boundary marking techniques in space around the school property. They will practically apply these skills to creating small maps of the school campus that can be compiled into larger more comprehensive maps. In the process, students will gain familiarity with the challenges that face all map makers: selecting the appropriate scale, projection, and symbolization (Monmonier, 1996, p. 5). Throughout this process, students should increase proficiency in critically reading and constructing maps, cooperating with classmates, and understanding fundamental orienteering.
Before maps can be created, students will have to demonstrate the techniques for surveying and measuring. As we have practiced in our seminar at the summer intensive, students will use striding and lines to measure and demarcate space. Because we have ample and relatively safe space on our high school campus and in the surrounding park lands to explore and map, I feel we have numerous site possibilities. However, as a starting point, our school has an approximately ¾ acre flat rectangular grass courtyard that is completely surrounded by the physical building. We also have a long rectangular space that has been organized as a butterfly garden. Students will use striding and chain surveying in these spaces to demarcate equally proportioned 'homesteads' in a grid pattern. In this exercise students will use a replica of a Gunter's chain, an 18th century surveying instrument comprised of measured links of chains and poles (1). They will also execute instructions from Sam Wyld's The Practical Surveyor, a 1725 field guide to surveying land that outlines the methodology for land surveying techniques through the 18th and early 19th centuries. Students will transfer measured space into scale and grid it on a plat, the mapmaker's term for the scaled version on paper. For fun the mapped land may be 'parceled out' to people in my classes. This 'hands-on' activity will be connected to the history curriculum through the study of the Mason Dixon Line and the Land Ordinance of 1785.
Ultimately these exercises provide the foundation for studying the development of the Midwestern states from raw open territory to squarely proportioned townships. Since the process of 'gridding' the Midwestern territories continued in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, students may be assigned projects to research and present the development of each of these territories as people transformed them from organized territories to states.
Exploring the rhetorical power of maps with my students seems a logical next step. The fact that maps must be selective, have a purpose, and have an audience should be understood in order to critically interpret maps. I like the following quote from Mark Monmonier as a point of reflection and discussion for students: "A good map tells a multitude of little white lies; it suppresses truth to help the user see what needs to be seen. Reality is three-dimensional, rich in detail, and far too factual to allow a complete yet uncluttered two-dimensional graphic scale model"(Monmonier, 1996, p. 25). Students should understand that maps as tools have a lot to say by what they include and omit. Their comprehension of maps throughout the unit can be assessed by having them periodically reflect orally and in writing according to this critical lens.
This critical view is particularly true when interpreting the political orientation of maps. Maps are tools to send political messages about power and nationhood. Two landmark maps worth interpreting are John Mitchell's 1755 map titled, "A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America with Roads, Distances, Limits, and Extent of the Settlements" and Abel Buell's 1783 map, "A New and correct Map of the United States of North America Layd down from the latest Observations and best Authorities agreeable to the Peace of 1783." Each map has a strong point of view about land possession. Collectively, these maps can help students learn about competing land claims in North America and how land claims were resolved. In addition, readings of the Mitchell map arguably contain the roots of Manifest Destiny, America's desire to occupy the North American continent from coast to coast. Once the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, the idea of a coast to coast tract of land could be envisioned on a larger scale. William Clark's map of the western territory (1810) sparked that interest.
Students' practical experience with the map practicum should transition well to interpreting maps of exploration and surveying lands west of the Mississippi and their connection to Manifest Destiny. Surveying the Mason-Dixon Line and executing the Land Ordinance of 1785 were fraught with the challenges of clearing trees and watching for hostile Native Americans. However, while similar challenges faced Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, their task seems monumental by comparison. Jefferson's instructions for the expedition involved traversing and charting huge distances by rivers of different length, depth and questionable origin. They also traveled over lands of various elevation and topography. Studying their record reveals the motivation of a president to inventory and legitimize his acquisition. Furthermore the results of the expedition including numerous journals and a master map reveal how maps can capture the imagination of a nation.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition is a logical point of study for the teaching westward expansion due to the ample resources in print and on-line. Recently (2004-2006) Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery's exploration of the lands from St. Louis to the Northwest coast was celebrated for its bicentennial. The expedition was richly documented with hand-drawn maps and charts, illustrations of wildlife, and correspondence in the form of journals and letters. The largest collection of these primary source artifacts is easily accessible as visible images on-line at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library website (2).
Moreover, the exploration of the Corps of Discovery covers a large portion of northern and western lands that were added to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. However, the Lewis and Clark Expedition doesn't include the exploration of territories held first by the Spanish and then Mexico that become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican American War of 1846-48. These territories were explored and mapped by Zebulon Pike and John Charles Fremont among others. This unit can easily be expanded to accommodate the study of the mapping techniques, end results, and unique circumstances of these additional explorers' work. In fact, having my students complete independent or group research on additional explorers and mapmaking related to the Southwest should occur prior to or after the completion of studying Lewis and Clark. In the case of each expedition, the explorers were faced with the challenges of traveling over uncertain territory and documenting their way. James Noble Wilford's The Mapmakers (Chapter 13) is an excellent source for background reading on these explorations. In addition, interactive web sites hosted by National Geographic, the History Channel, and PBS can be easily accessed to electronically explore the route, details, and documentation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Zebulon Pike also is featured on many sites on the web. Lewis and Clark's expedition (1804-06) and Pike's explorations (1806) continue to attract attention due to their respective 200 year anniversaries.
In order to personalize the experiences of Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Fremont, students will have to demonstrate the ability to locate the direction of the cardinal ordinates. I plan on having students use a basic compass to orient around the school campus and the surrounding parklands. Orienteering is a hobby that has enjoyed a bit of a revival since the GPS device has become a consumer item. Some schools have orienteering clubs that make use of GPS devices. These may be worth exploring to some degree. However, in its most fundamental form, orienteering requires people to use the position of the sun and stars as well as a compass to establish and keep a point of reference. Without the benefit of using a map, navigating one's way through unfamiliar territory becomes dependent on orienteering techniques.
The explorers of the American West sought to make the territory familiar and more easily accessible through another mapmaking genre, the topographic map. These are particularly useful in mountainous and hilly regions where knowledge of elevation and direction might be necessary for survival. I know little about surveying for elevation but am exploring the plausibility of having students use rudimentary techniques to note topographical changes. Should I succeed in mastering some basic transferable skills in this area, it would allow the students to explore topographical mapping on some of the uneven space on the school campus and in the New Haven Parks that surround the school. Composing topographical maps might be initially too challenging for my students and me to address. Moreover, the evolution of the modern topographical map emerges in 1879 when the newly formed United States Geological Survey (USGS) initiates the first of a number of nationwide mapping endeavors. This occurs outside the timeframe for my unit. However, we may view and learn about topographical maps through the USGS online resources (3). As I explore ways to incorporate the topographic map into my curriculum I feel confident that striding, chain, and compass measurements are sufficient starting points for my students because these activities strongly correlate with specific historical events that initiate the phenomena of Manifest Destiny. Additionally, they are activities that students can easily explore around our school, homes, and community at-large in New Haven.
As New Haven is the home for my students and will most likely remain so for at least the next two to three years, it makes sense to conclude my objectives for the unit with an examination of some of the mapping moments in the city's history. The grid which is the organizational structure for so much of the Midwest is apparent in the founding design of New Haven. Fortunately for our study, the grid pattern of the nine squares of New Haven, the original city layout, is evident in the earliest maps of New Haven up through all contemporary maps. My objectives for the unit are framed so as to accommodate a study of maps of New Haven as time and interest permits. The history of the nine squares of New Haven may not be that apparent to students who are often more preoccupied with knowing their own neighborhood. Including an objective where a student can examine a map or image of their neighborhood and possibly compare to maps and/or images of other New Haven neighborhoods might allow students to gain a greater awareness of the New Haven in general. Showing historical maps that portray the neighborhoods of New Haven during different periods of history might also alert students to how maps are records of changes over time.
The Wadsworth Map of 1748 depicts New Haven as a community planned on a grid with nine squares. The center square was held as community land. It remains held in trust today as the New Haven Green. Since students are familiar with the Green, it makes sense to begin a discussion about New Haven neighborhoods there. Discussion about places in downtown New Haven should follow easily. From that point I imagine asking students to talk about their neighborhoods. Having students be able to describe the location of their neighborhood relative to downtown (and the Green in particular) will demonstrate student ability to articulate using direction and distance. Following this discussion, my showing a slide show of other New Haven map images over time will help show the continuity of the nine squares yet show how New Haven changed over time. As my ability with technology improves over the summer, I hope to also gather satellite images of New Haven to include in the presentation and discussion. Some of the images I have been able to collect thus far include a bird's eye view illustration of New Haven, a ward map, a map showing the proposed Route 34 Connector (1979), and a panoramic map of New Haven from 1879. Each of these maps can be viewed on-line from web addresses included in the resource list (4).
The bird's eye view of my students' journey through the rhetoric of maps in western expansion of the United States stems from my observations that students appear to be uncomfortable demonstrating proficiency with geographical skills. Unfortunately, proficiency in geographical literacy is problematic in many schools across the country.
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