REACHING FOR THE EDGES AND
MAPPING US
Detail of plate 43, A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America by Daniel K. Wallingford (Boston: Daniel K. Wallingford
[reprint from ca. 1964]). Courtesy of the Arthur H. Robinson Map Library (G3701 A6 193- W3).
From our part of the world, our “center,” the margins have
Traveling to the edges has been a topic of interest from ancient
always been distant places—different, full of mystery. In the blank
times, and cartography has enabled us to achieve that goal. The
spaces on maps there is room for imagination, and that is where
image of the map allows us—as it has always done—to travel,
men have relegated all that, whether worshiped or feared, is
with our minds, all around the world. But the idea of actually
unknown, all that is not familiar. If in the Middle Ages the holy city
taking a map to navigate on a physical journey—which is one of
of Jerusalem was centered and Terrestrial Paradise and monstrous
the first functions we now assign to cartography—is a much more
races were located in the margins of the earth (fig. 2), now we place
recent use. Not until the late nineteenth century did the social use
ourselves in the middle of the world in our mind’s map, and put
of maps begin to increase, as travelers used them as guides to the
our others—different people, cultures, religions, economies, and
point of their destinations. It was then that maps became a daily
politics—surrounding it. Those cartographic edges have always
instrument in our lives.
provoked mixed reactions, from an absolute deep fascination to
The popularity of maps gained a boost in the early twentieth
complete revulsion or fear. But regardless of any of these two, men
century from expansion of the automobile industry and road
have always wanted to reach those edges—to know, learn, possess,
making, which favored both commercial and touristic journeys, and
control those other worlds.
road maps become one of the most common types of cartography.
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