A Special Collections Exhibition
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Mapping the New World |
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Indian
map of the area of Virginia
There
has lately been a great surge in studies of the mapping of non-literate peoples,
and this early seventeenth-century map of Virginia is a fine example of this
type of
cartography.
Drawn by a member of one of the local tribes, it shows the rivers and
coast in outline; the 70 semi-circles represent Indian villages. Some names have
been added in English; “C [Cape] Henry,” “Chesapian Bay”,
“Werowacomoco” and “Monacon enemyes to Powaton.”
Maps like this are very rare, and of this area only three survive, one at
The British Library, and two in the General Archives of Seville in Spain.
© Special Collections Division
The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
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