Making Maps Intellectually Accessible. Maps are complex: they are shaped by social attitudes and cultural beliefs. To understand old maps we must therefore do more than relate their content to modern maps; we must also read “between the lines.” A good way to start doing so is to consider how “decorations” actually convey specific meanings within the map’s overall image. (See also section X.)

The three eighteenth-century maps in this section — one French (item 1), one British (item 2), and one Dutch (item 3) — supplement the geographical outlines of the Americas with prominent decorative vignettes (or, small views). In particular, they all show the same vignette of beavers building a dam. What made this image so appealing and worth copying?

This vignette greatly magnified Europeans’ appreciation of the beaver as a model of hard work and natural skill. First, it imagined a well-orchestrated army of beavers, each identified as having a specific job; in this, it mimicked the carefully regulated division of labor that was by 1700 increasingly common in the construction of major public works. Second, it set the beavers’ work against the dramatic backdrop of Niagara Falls, whose size and splendor truly amazed Europeans.

The meaning of the vignette lies in the parallel readily drawn between these elements: the industry of the beavers in building dams, the efficiency of regulated work gangs, and the tremendous natural presence of the falls. Were Europeans to apply their industry in such a manner to American landscapes, the vignette suggests, they could construct new works of similar magnitude! This powerful sentiment converts otherwise strictly geographical images into ambitious images of empire.

The vignettes on De Fer’s wall map were probably designed and engraved by Nicolas Guérard. He derived the background of the beaver vignette from the first published image of the falls, in Jean-Louis Hennepin’s 1697 account of his travels. The foreground depicts an imaginary army of beavers who, through the careful division of labor, are constructing a dam. Each beaver is identified by task: lumberjacks (A), carpenters (B), masons (I), and lesser laborers (C, D, G, L) do the hard work, supervised by a “commandant or architect” (E) and other officers, such as the “inspector of invalids” (F) who ensures that disabled beavers really are injured and not malingering.

Transcription of the vignette’s key

Des Castors du Canada

Leurs Industrie a Bâtir des Chaussées pour retenir l’Eau se faire d’un Petit Ruisseau un Grand Lac, pour y construire Leurs Logements au tour, est tout a fait merveilleuse.

A. Bucherons qui avec leurs Dents couppent de Gros Arbres qu’ils font tomber a travers le Ruisseau pour Servir de fondement a leurs Chaussées

B. Charpentiers qui Couppent les Branches de longueur

C. Porteurs de Bois pour la Construire

D. Ceux qui font du mortier

E. Commendant ou l’Architecte

F. Inspecteur des Invalides

G. Ceux qui Trainent le Mortier par leurs Queües

H. Castor Incommodé de la Queüe pour avoir trop Travaillé

I. Massons qui Batissent la Chaussée

L. Comme Ils tappent avec leurs Queües pour rendre la Massonnerie plus ferme

M. Logement les Castors en Dôme ou four avec une Sortie sur Terre et une dans l’Eau

Translation of the vignette's key, by Prof. Nancy Erickson (Modern Languages & Literatures, USM)

Concerning the Beavers of Canada

Their industry in building dams to retain water in order to turn a little stream into a big lake, in which to construct their lodges, is totally wonderful.

A. Lumberjacks who cut Big Trees with their Teeth, which they fell across the stream to serve as the foundation for their dams

B. Carpenters who cut the long branches

C. Bearers of wood for construction

D. Those who make the mortar

E. Commandant or architect

F. Inspector of the disabled

G. Those who drag the mortar on their tails

H. Beaver with a disabled tail from having worked too hard

I. Masons who build the dam

L. Those who tap with their tails to make the masonry firmer

M. Beaver lodge in the form of a dome or kiln with an exit on land and another in the water

The Châtelain family of Amsterdam book publishers produced a seven-volume Atlas historique [“Historical Atlas”] between 1705 and 1732. Each volume presented ornate maps together with extensive historical accounts and genealogies concerning each region of the world. Volume six (1719) contained this map as an introduction to a set of historical accounts (the “following dissertations” of the title). Although Latin was still the international language of scholarship, the Atlas historique was presented in French, by then the international language of culture and trade. This indicates that it was intended for northern Europe’s burgeoning middle classes. As befitting an instructional work, the atlas’s maps were not original compositions. In particular, Henri Châtelain slavishly copied this map from a now very rare, ten-sheet map published by Nicolas de Fer in 1713.