Maps as objects of material culture

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by Margaret Beck Pritchard

Critical to Lord Botetourt's endorsement of Henry's map was the fact that the mapmaker was the father of Patrick Henry (1736-1799), who, only a few years earlier, had been a moving force against the Stamp Act. That Botetourt helped fund John Henry's map and placed it in such an important location in the palace was most likely less for its excellence than it was as a diplomatic show of support for the Virginia colonists during a time of steadily mounting tension between the royal government and its American colonies.

Finally while there is little question of the symbolic importance of the placement of maps within a house, their emblematic nature is even more apparent in portraits. In 1753 the Irish-born Arthur Dobbs was appointed royal governor of North Carolina, but it was almost a year and a half before he arrived in the colony. Before his appointment he had served in the House of Commons of the Irish Parliament, as engineer-in-chief and surveyor general of Ireland, and had been deeply involved in promoting a search for a northwest passage to India. Shortly after being assured of his role as governor of North Carolina, Dobbs spent several weeks in Bath, where he had his portrait painted by the fashionable artist William Hoare (see Fig. 2). As was often the case, the artist chose to depict his sitter surrounded by artifacts that reflected his position or personality. Dobbs is portrayed with a globe in the background, and he holds a compass that probably refers to his role as surveyor general and his interest in locating a northwest passage to India. The most prominent feature of the portrait, however, is the map of North Carolina that Dobbs holds. At the time the portrait was painted he had never set foot in America, yet he perceived his position as governor of North Carolina as perhaps his greatest achievement, worthy of being committed to canvas.

MARGARET BECK PRITCHARD is the curator of prints, maps, and wallpaper at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

(1.) Inscribed on the flyleaf of John Custis's "English Atlas" is "6 pounds 15 Shill:" Below is his bookplate bearing the printed date "Septemb. 7th 1698."

(2.) Inventory of John Ferne, May 6, 1700, Middlesex County, Virginia, Will Book [A], 1698-1713, in Room-By-Room Inventories: 1649-1729 (unpublished transcriptions of Virginia inventories [TR 35.1], vol. 1, p. 77, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia).

(3.) Inventory of Ralph Wormley, November 3, 1701, Middlesex County Will Book [A], pp. 90-91; inventory of the estate of James Whaley, October 1701, York County, Virginia, Records (transcriptions of Virginia inventories, p. 84 [TR 35.1] John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library). I wish to thank Laura Pass Barry for locating references to objects of value comparable to John Custis's "English Atlas."

(4.) Byrd recorded in his diary that he hung pictures in the library on December 15, 1710 (The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1709-1712, ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling [Dietz Press, Richmond, Virginia, 1941], p. 272).