Maps as objects of material culture

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by Margaret Beck Pritchard

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a tune of great change in both the old world and the new. Tremendous advances were being made in the exploration and documentation of the known world. The extensive trade in natural resources, furs, tobacco, and slaves created excess wealth in England and western Europe, which, in turn, afforded more time for academic pursuits. Educated men became consumed with gathering information about the world around them. They amassed important libraries that reflected their worldly interests and decorated their houses with objects indicative of their scholarly pursuits. Maps, charts, and globes became important symbols for the enlightened gentleman.

Certain aristocratic groups within the colonies began to regard themselves as the cultural equals of the English gentry. The high regard in which books were held is exemplified by John Custis (1678-11749) of Virginia, whose library was catalogued at his death. One of his hooks was an atlas composed of maps he had selected, today called a composite atlas. On the spine of this volume is "English Atlas" in gold letters. By the time the library was inventoried, Custis's atlas was fifty-one years old and many maps were outdated, yet the book was the second item listed in the inventory. Only the highly regarded two-volume Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1731-1743) by Mark Catesby (1683-1749) precedes it. Equally telling was the staggering price Custis paid for the atlas in 1698--[pound]6.12. [1] Comparing the value of the atlas with household items listed in the inventories of his contemporaries places the cost in perspective. The most expensive item in the 1700 inventory of John Fern e (d. 1700) of Middlesex County Virginia, taken two years after Custis purchased his atlas, was "I feather bedd rugg 1 pr. blanketts bolster pillows curtaines vallance/head cloth tester and bedstead 7.0.0." [2] Ferne's bed and hangings were worth virtually the same sum that Custis paid for his atlas.

When the estate of Ralph Wormeley (1650-1701), also of Middlesex County, was inventoried in 1701, the most expensive items were once again beds and bed hangings. Wormeley owned three--one set valued at six pounds and the others at seven pounds each. The same year, the York County, Virginia, inventory of James Whaley (1652-1701) listed a bedstead, the most

In The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) described the subject matter appropriate for walls of libraries: "Such prints as are hung in the walls ought to be memorials of learning, and portraits of men of science and erudition." [6] The library itself was a masculine space, a sanctum where gentlemen withdrew to indulge in their scholarly pursuits.

Although William Byrd II's son and father also collected books, he purchased the majority of the collection. When the library was inventoried by the bookbinder and printer John Stretch (d. 1764) after 1751, it comprised 2,345 volumes. By 1777, when the library was put on the market, 4,000 volumes were advertised in the Williamsburg Virginia Gazette. [7] Of the twenty-three bookcases in the library, three and a half contained Byrd's collections of "History, Voyages, Travels, &c." Also in this section were books on navigation, geography, trade, and commerce. Among the titles on the book spines from "Case B. Fourth shelf. Folio" were "Two large Books of Maps." It is possible that these two untitled volumes were loose sheet maps bound together; like Custis's "English Atlas." Other libraries of comparable size or importance to the Byrds' that included geographical topics were those of Cotton Mather, James Logan, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson.

Like portraits, maps provided suitable subject matter for the walls of a gentleman's study or library (see P1. II), a practice in keeping with European tradition as illustrated in numerous Dutch genre paintings of the seventeenth century, most notably those of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). In his will, William Fitzhugh (1651-1701) of Virginia wrote, "I Give my son costly item, at eight pounds. Second most expensive was "To 14 New Chaires 4.4.00." [3]

Custis's brother-in-law William Byrd II of Westover plantation in Virginia (see p. 197, P1. II) constructed a separate library building in which he pondered his books and paintings (see P1. III). [4] Byrd wrote to his friend John Perceval (1683-1748), earl of Egmont, in 1736 that he had

the pleasure of conversing a great deal with your picture. It is incomparably well done & the painter has not only hit your ayr, but some of the vertues too which usd to soften and enliven your features. So that every connoisseur that sees it, can see t'was drawn for a generous, benevolent, & worthy person. [5]

Globes were also appropriate for the proper gentleman's library. In a recent article Robert Baldwin states, "globes were used to demonstrate the extent of imperial power by rulers boldly exploiting the likeness of the orb and the globe." [11] Similarly, ownership of a globe represented one's status as a man of learning, aware of worldly, commercial, and political affairs. In 1772 "a complete Set of elegant MAPS framed in Mahogany with Spring rollers [and] a large and very fine pair of GLOBES" were advertised in the Virginia Gazette as being for sale at the post office in Williamsburg. [12] Although we know nothing about the type of globe owned by George Wythe (1726-1806) of Williamsburg, the friend and mentor of Thomas Jefferson and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, we do know that he ordered a leather cover for it. [13] The 1773 inventory of William Tryon (1729-1788), the colonial governor of New York, listing the furniture in his house in old Fort George in lower Manhattan, included "1 Globe" in the study. [14] Care was also taken to secure the correct or most up-to-date globes. On June 20,1752, Benjamin Franklin wrote to the London printer William Strahan (1715-1785), requesting "A Pair of Mrs. Senex's improv'd Globes, recommended in the Transactions of the Royal Society, (or Neal's improv'd Globes, if thought better than Senex's). [15]