the University of Texas
at Arlington Libraries
Vol. XIV * No. 1 * Spring 2000
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Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XIV * No. 1 * Spring 2000 |
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The Special Collections Division recently added several significant items to its growing cartographic collections. The Division, already known for its Texas and Greater Southwest concentration, purchased a pocket globe and a Spanish-produced map, both of which will enhance and expand the scope of its collection. In addition, the library received a donation of a rare and important atlas.
The Summerlee Foundation of Dallas, Texas, donated Alexander von Humboldt’s Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne along with the accompanying atlas titled Atlas Geographique et Physique de Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne. The four volumes and accompanying atlas were published in Paris in 1825-1827. The Humboldt works were donated by the Summerlee Foundation in honor of Jenkins and Virginia Garrett, longtime donors and library supporters.
The work is a second French edition of Alexander von Humboldt's essay on New Spain, which is regarded as one of the seminal works of Western Americana. Humboldt, a German scientist, spent five years in the Spanish dominions of the New World from 1799 to 1804, gathering information and material for a systematic scientific examination of the geography, flora and fauna of the regions through which he traveled.
 Alexander von Humboldt was one of the greatest scientific minds of his time as evidenced by his multi-volume work and atlas on New Spain. |
The essay is in four volumes and covers a variety of information. The first book describes the climate, agriculture, commerce, and military defense of the country. Book two expounds on population and the ‘casts’ of the people, while book three examines the political composition of the kingdom. Book four expands on agricultural opportunities and the influence of mining on cultivation.
It was the questions regarding mines and mining in New Spain that first drew Humboldt into the project. The director of the Royal School of Mines in Mexico City, M. d’Elhuyer, persuaded the scientist to take the information he had collected regarding the country’s national industry and produce a map depicting the thirty-seven mining districts, as well as the location of the major mines. M. d’Elhuyer lamented that he could not locate one map published in Europe that even noted the name of the city of Guanaxuato, a mining center with 70,000 inhabitants. Humboldt responded to the request and completed the mining map after his departure from Mexico City in 1804. It was this initial request that led to the comprehensive publication on New Spain.
It is the atlas from Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne that is so important to Texas cartographic history. In many ways it is typical of thematic atlases that became popular in the late 19th century. It contains twenty maps, including route maps, port and bay charts with soundings and attendant elevations, population charts, elevation profiles from Mexico City to several major cities, including Los Angeles; and a world map illustrating the major sea routes--all hallmarks of thematic maps. However, the two maps that make this work extraordinary are "Carte Generale de Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne" and "Carte du Mexique et des pays limitropes suités au nord et à l'est."
"Carte Generale" was
originally executed by Humboldt during his stay in Mexico in 1803-1804, and covers two
large folio double sheets. Map bibliographer Carl Wheat calls the map a "truly
magnificent cartographic achievement" and concludes that before the explorations of
Lewis and Clark, Humboldt's maps were in the first rank of western cartography. "Carte
du Mexique," shown on the left, is an elaboration of Humboldt’s "Carte
Generale" and encompasses a single double folio sheet. The map includes most of
the territory of the Spanish possessions on the North American continent, ranging from the
kingdom of New California to the Gulf of Honduras. Humboldt reported that he was unable to
include the intendancy of Merida, the southernmost region of New Spain, in order to
maintain the large scale. M. Poirson, a Paris engineer, drew the map from the research
furnished by Humboldt.
The map depicts all the provinces which depend on the viceroy of Mexico and the two commandants of the provincias internas, including Texas, the island of Cuba, which was considered the military port of New Spain, and Louisiana. It also shows the states along the Atlantic seaboard in the United States. The map is important to the development of Texas and the American Southwest since it was the first map to include information from the Spanish and Mexican archives to be published in almost a hundred years, and is credited with opening up the region to American immigration.
If Humboldt's maps are unusual because they encompass information from Spanish and Mexican archives, then Spanish-produced and published maps of the New World, particularly of the region that encompassed the land that became Texas, are rare indeed. Mapa Maritimo del Golfo de Mexico e Isles de la America by Tomas Lopez was published in Madrid in 1755 and acquired by the Division late last year.
The map [shown on the right] is on two folio sheets and depicts
the region of the Gulf of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, including the top
outline of South America. The northern portion of the gulf shows only coastal features
with Florida drawn as a series of closely associated islands on the eastern and southern
tip. Inlets, bays and river mouths are also shown. The land region of the northern gulf is
labeled Luisiane; and Mexico is noted as Nueva Espana. The sea areas are
criss-crossed with rhumb lines and compass roses. There is an elaborate cartouche with a
Spanish coat of arms, fruits and vegetables from the New World, a bow and quiver with
arrows and a native headdress, as well as an European sword and shield. In addition, the
Lopez map presents an artistic appearance, unusual for the period. Although mapmakers
continued the use of a decorative cartouche, most European cartographers had developed a
more scientific look to their cartography.
Another item acquired by the Division represents a first for UTA: the acquisition of a rare "pocket globe." Until this past year the library did not have an example of this form of cartography. The division does have a number of 12, 14, and 16-inch globes produced primarily during the early to mid-nineteenth century. Also, there are examples in the collection of printed globe gores, including a sheet of small gores printed by Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan monk and cartographer, in 1693, and a set of 6-inch gores dated c.1750 which have been cut and fabricated ready to mount on a core. A completed pocket globe is a rarity in most library collections.
The small globe [see photograph at the top of this page] acquired by the Division is a 3-inch [7.5cm] terrestrial globe encased in a fitted paper mache case lined with celestial zodiac charts. The globe is untitled and produced by Minshulls of London and engraved by James Mynde, c.1785. The engraved paper gores are fitted over a solid wood sphere and integrated without a meridian into a paper mache case covered with black cloth that is hinged and latched with a clasp. The oceans in the terrestrial depiction are finished in pea green with designations of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The circumnavigation voyages of Captain James Cook and others are shown as well.
Globes, the three dimensional representation of the earth, are familiar items. Most of us have encountered them in schoolrooms at an early age. It is a fascinating form of cartography that comes in a variety of sizes. They range from the famous giant globes produced by Coronelli in 1680, which measured 15 feet in diameter; to the first pocket globe measuring only 5 cm in diameter produced by Joseph Moxon, a British mathematician, in the late 1600s.
Although pocket globes were produced throughout Europe, it was in England that this type of globe became popular and even fashionable. Although less costly than its larger counterpart, the pocket globe is more than a cheaper version. When the case, covered on the inside with gores of the celestial hemispheres, is opened the whole world on a very small scale is revealed. Globe bibliographer Peter van der Krogt asserts the miniaturized world shown by the pocket globe has a symbolic value. Joseph Maxon made a luxury pocket globe for Queen Anne to offer to the King Prussia for this reason, and Krogt maintains it is this feature that makes the pocket globe such an attractive item.
Another advantage of the pocket globe is that the case contains the concave sky. Traditional celestial globes turned the heavens "inside out" and did not depict the constellations as they are seen in the sky. For that reason they were unsuitable for the purpose of practical observation. The early celestial globes, therefore, served only to teach the various constellation configurations and to solve a number of astronomical problems, such as the rising and setting of the stars. The concave form of the pocket globe allows the starry sky to be presented as we see it above our heads, a more natural perspective.
The unusual eighteenth century pocket globe, the works of Alexander von Humboldt and his atlas, and the rare Spanish map of the Gulf of Mexico are only a few of the thousands of cartographic items available for research and study in the Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library (VGCHL). The VGCHL focuses on five centuries of exploration and mapping of the New World, with particular emphasis on the region of the Gulf Coast and the Greater Southwest, which includes Northern Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The VGCHL contains thousands of rare maps and atlases, and features works of many noted cartographers. The library also collects maps relating to transcontinental migration, transportation surveys, and oil exploration. If you have any questions about the new acquisitions or seek information on the holdings of the VGCHL, please contact Kit Goodwin at 817-272-5329 (voice), 817-272-3360 (fax), or goodwin@uta.edu (e-mail).
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