Wilson Library explores NC cartography in new exhibit

First-year Natalie Garcia grew up in Massachusetts before coming to North Carolina to attend UNC. 

Prior to attending Wilson Library’s ‘Compasses, Cartouches, and Creatures’ gallery, she said she felt her knowledge of North Carolina history was incomplete. But she said visiting the exhibit, which opened July 27 and was curated by the North Carolina Collection Gallery staff, helped her “bridge the gap” in her geographic understanding. 

“I feel like a map can tell you so much,” she said.

Open to students and the public, the collection features maps dating back to the 16th century and demonstrates how North Carolinians rely on cartography beyond navigation. 

“Maps can be used as an important resource to enhance historical research,” Linda Jacobson, keeper of the North Carolina Collection Gallery, said.

She also said maps use artistic embellishment and pictorial elements to “communicate information about culture, economics and politics” about the period they were made in. 

The contents of the exhibition span across five centuries, Jacobson said, which reflect historical periods from the Age of Exploration to the mid-twentieth century. 

Several maps within the exhibit show the harmful stereotypes of their time, she also said. Poor depiction or general lack of representation are prevalent themes in cartouches; when they include non-white figures, the illustrations often feature caricatures of the pictured demographics.

When she referred to “Virginia, Marylandia, et Carolina,” a map dated to approximately 1730 by Johann Baptist Homann that is part of the exhibit, Jacobson showed how the map indicated the power dynamics and racism of the time. 

She said the piece depicts Europeans at the top of the map and Native Americans toward the bottom to entice European colonization and to show Native Americans as “less civilized.” 

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The gallery also showcases how some 20th century artists utilized pictorial mapmaking to celebrate diversity and inclusion. 

Specifically, the collection houses the work of Harlem Renaissance artist Louise E. Jefferson, who Jacobson said sought to represent groups historically overlooked by cartographers. 

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In reference to the exhibit, Garcia said she noticed several maps depicted the same areas in varying ways, representing the people who lived there at the time and the political environment of the era. She said these depictions reflected the “heart of her coursework.”

As a student in Interdisciplinary Studies 123: Triple-1: Borders and Boundaries and Geography 121: Geographies of Globalization, she said she frequently refers to maps as an academic resource. 

Likewise, teaching associate professor in the Department of Geography Jun Liang said the exhibit relates to the geographic information science classes he teaches at the University. 

For example, he mentioned how one of his global positioning systems classes collected the locations of recycling bins on campus, processed the data and uploaded it online in the form of a map.

“If you look at the past maps, it's a combination of arts and science, and nowadays, we require less knowledge of those design resources because we rely on a larger bank of symbols,” Liang said.

The research emphasized how maps continue to serve us today, as what Liang calls a “useful tool” in telling stories. 

Jacobson said that a major takeaway for the exhibit is that there are different ways for people to view a map — as a “document” and also as "a work of art.” 

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