Episode 177, Martin Brückner, The Social Life of Maps in America

by Holly WhiteMarch 13, 2018

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Did you know that maps have social lives?

Maps facilitate a lot of different social and political relationships between people and nations. And they did a lot of this work for Americans throughout the early American past.

Martin Brückner, a Professor of English at the University of Delaware, joins us to discuss early American maps and early American mapmaking with details from his book, The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute..

Episode Summary

Martin Brückner, a Professor of English at the University of Delaware, joins us to discuss early American maps and early American mapmaking with details from his book, The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860.

As we explore maps and mapmaking in early America, Martin reveals how maps had social lives; the development of early Americans’ interest in maps and the type of maps they were interested in; And, details about how early Americans drew, printed, and manufactured their own maps between 1750 and 1860.

What You’ll Discover

The social lives of maps
Maps as historical sources
Wall maps in early America
The development of early Americans’ interest in maps
The price and manufacture of the maps in colonial British North America
Henry Popple’s The British Empire in America
Why early Americans began making their own maps
How Philadelphia emerged as the center for mapmaking in North America
How early Americans made their own maps
The market for early American maps
American mapmakers Lewis Evans, Matthew Carey, and John Melish
Changes in American mapmaking technology
Paper and maps
Maps and American Expansion
Atlases and pocket maps
The importance of maps in everyday lives
How maps create a sense of national identity

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, how would American history have been different if maps had been too expensive to have become objects in early Americans’ everyday lives?