In
the late fifteenth century, Europe was an isolated world, knowing other
lands only through rumors, the occasional traveler's tale, and prized
luxury goods from the East acquired through Levantine middlemen. Three
hundred years later, Europeans were intricately connected to all parts
of the globe, colonizing or controlling the economies of significant parts
of it, and on the verge of dominating the rest. This exhibition looks
at the
transformation of Europe's position in the world and Europe's interactions
with the newly-encountered peoples of Asia, Africa and the Americas through
a particular form of visual documentation: the map. At one level, European
maps from this period tell the story of how exploration led to an increasingly
accurate knowledge of the contours of the earth's surface, coupled with
a growing technical sophistication in translating a spherical, three-dimensional
world onto two-dimensional sheets of paper. But on another level, maps
reveal how Europeans viewed these strange new worlds, their inhabitants,
and the political, economic, religious and scientific opportunities that
they presented. This exhibition shows the development of maps as both
scientific and cultural documents, and how a new form of craftsman created
by European expansion, the mapmaker, both documented and helped to form
the growing European sense of entitlement in the world.
Click on a region of the globe to enter the exhibition.
Mapping New Worlds was curated by Jennifer Barr, Eric Pumroy, and Christa Wiliford. The exhibition first appeared in the Rare Book Room of Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr College, from January through May, 2005.