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The Mapmakers: An Essay in Four Parts
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The Mapmakers: An Essay in Four Parts

Mapmaking

Map Production

Map production went through a series of stages, beginning with the field observations of an explorer, a surveyor on land, or a hydrographer or navigator on water. In order to be useful for mapping, their observations had to contain as many precise measurements of distance, direction and location of latitude and longitude as possible. These field observations, in the form of notebooks, ship's logs and sketched maps, usually went to a professional cartographer, who was often also a geographer.

The process by which information moved from field observations made in Canada to maps produced by European cartographers and printers was systematized by the French well in advance of the English. In 1670 the intendant of New France, Jean Talon, ordered all explorers to keep records. Governor Buade de Frontenac added to this directive in 1674, by appointing Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin as Canada's first cartographer, with orders to receive these records, construct proper maps and convey this material to the Ministry of the Marine in Paris. Between 1674 and 1708, Franquelin made some 50 maps. None were ever published, but they informed the Ministry and were made available to cartographers appointed by the court to construct maps. In 1716, Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry was appointed chief engineer at Québec, also assuming the job of chief cartographer. When the cartographic division was established in 1720 as a division of the Ministry, Léry's maps became accessible to its chief engineer, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, whose cartographers and printers kept the maps of the French empire up-to-date.

Professional cartographers had access to earlier maps, other field observations, and different information as well as the technical competence to compile these into maps which placed new findings in a broader context. Cartographers producing maps of Canada were almost exclusively French and English and living in Europe, until map publishing became established in Canada during the 1820s.

The main problem for these cartographers was judging the accuracy of the information they received, since they were in no position to verify it. Before the use of mechanical means to reproduce maps, the cartographer's map would be the final version: a well drawn, attractively produced manuscript map. Most such maps from the 16th century are unique; rarely was a duplicate made, although some were copied by other cartographers. Many of these maps were commissioned by wealthy patrons or monarchs, or given as presentation pieces much like art. Once a map was produced, the original field sketches were discarded.

Once printed maps replaced manuscript maps, cartographers dealt directly with printers. Map reproduction involved two basic steps: the transfer of the cartographer's image to a printer's plate and the printing process itself. Both of these steps required specialists. Between the appearance of the first printed map in 1472 and the end of the 19th century, there were three ways of preparing a plate. The first printed maps were produced from smooth wood blocks, in which the image to be printed had been carved in relief by a form cutter. Since wood blocks were fragile, difficult to edit and wore out quickly, they were almost completely replaced by the mid 16th century by a new technique -- copper engraving.

Copper engraving involved the preparation of a plate by cutting (incising) the cartographic image into a flat copper sheet. In contrast to wood blocks -- where the ink adhered to a raised surface -- on a copper plate the ink filled the incisings. In both cases the cartographic image had to be cut or incised into the plate or wood surface in reverse, in order to produce a positive image. This required highly trained specialists, really artists. Many signed their plates, such as David Pelletier on Champlain's map of 1612, or the great Italian portrait engraver Giovanni Federico Pesca on the 1657 Bressani map.

Copper engraving was gradually replaced by lithography during the 19th century. This is a chemical process whereby a raised image is produced on a smooth stone surface by dissolving the unwanted areas with nitric acid. Because the woodcutter and engraver were eliminated, maps could be produced faster and more cheaply. The presses used to transfer the image to paper also varied over time. In general, wood block maps were printed on a flatbed press much like a wine press, with vertical pressure applied to a sheet of paper placed on top of the inked surface. Copper plates made the roller press necessary. This press moved the plate and slightly moistened paper between two rollers, squeezing the two together and forcing the paper into the incised image that held the ink. Both presses required cleaning and re-inking every time an image was printed. Lithographic presses were originally much like flatbed and roller presses but quickly developed their own specialized technology.



Unlike in France, where the process of collecting, compiling, storing and disseminating cartographic information was fairly systematic after 1670, mapmaking was slow to develop in England until the 1790s. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries some information was collected and published by Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas, but most often, potential authors made their own arrangements with private publishers. In 1791, The Hudson's Bay Company appointed Aaron Arrowsmith to prepare maps for them and gave him access to their voluminous archives. When his first map appeared in 1795, large parts of Canada appeared on a map for the first time. Arrowsmith's maps were regularly updated and, after his death in 1823, his sons Aaron Jr. and Samuel took over the firm. With the death of Samuel in 1839, a nephew, John Arrowsmith, continued the tradition until 1873. The Arrowsmith maps are a remarkable tool for studying the growth of geographical knowledge of Canada.

In 1795, The British Admiralty finally established a Hydrographic Department similar to the French cartographic division of the Ministry of the Marine. Its first director, Alexander Dalrymple, published the first Admiralty chart in 1800. With the founding of this department, the Royal Navy ceased being dependent on private publishers for their charts, although many explorers, including naval personnel, continued to make their own publishing arrangements. Canadian map printing developed in the 1820s using the lithographic process. It expanded rapidly in Toronto, Québec and Montreal, and by the 1850s was well established with an output of large and complex maps similar in quality to those produced in Britain.

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