David I. Macleod

David I. Macleod is Professor of History at Central Michigan University. He is the author of Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870–1920...

Mapping in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region

David I. Macleod

Winner: 2008 Historical Society of Michigan Award and 2008 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, Gold Medal, Regional books

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An illustrated chapter on the renowned Michigan map expert Louis Karpinski opens this volume, following a comparative introduction by the noted cartographic historian David Buisseret. Twelve chapters tell particular stories. Often these narratives extend well beyond the limits of today's state of Michigan. Ameican Indian mapmakers sought to give directions and convey cosmological meanings and political relationships; only gradually did they adopt the geometric framing and uniformity of European maps, which reflected a different set of cultural attitudes. Would-be colonial governors mapped to promote their dreams. Boundary commissioners surveyed and mapped to settle contested claims and lay the foundations for peace along the U.S.-Canadian border. On the Canadian side, surveyors drew maps to build up the new British colony against American influences and encroachments. Mapmakers were also ambitious entrepreneurs, peddling illustrated county atlases to proud farm owners, bird's-eye views to show off towns, and plat and insurance maps to aid property development.

In describing how people produced and used maps, contributors tell a larger story of one region's peoples and cultures—and of a nation's zeal for exploration.

Contents
Acknowledgments; Introduction (David Buisseret); Louis Charles Karpinski and the Cartography of the Great Lakes (Mary Sponberg Pedley); First Nations Mapmaking in the Great Lakes Region in Intercultural Contexts: A Historical Review (G. Malcolm Lewis); The 1767 Maps of Robert Rogers and Jonathan Carver: A Proposal for the Establishment of the Colony of Michilimackinac (Keith R. Widder); Motives for Mapping the Great Lakes: Upper Canada (J. P. D. Dunbabin); The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary along the Michigan Frontier: The Boundary Commissions under Articles Six and Seven of the Treaty of Ghent (Francis M. Carroll); The Holes in the Grid: Reservation Surveys in Lower Michigan (Margaret Wickens Pearce); Mapping the Grand Traverse Indian Country: The Contributions of Peter Dougherty (Helen Hornbeck Tanner); Picturing Progress: Assessing the Nineteenth-Century Atlas-Map Bonanza (Cheryl Lyon- Jenness); An Evaluation of Plat, Sanborn, and Panoramic Maps of Cities and Towns in Michigan); David K. Patton, Amy K. Lobben, and Bruce M. C. Pape); Tracing Euro-American Settlement Expansion in Southern Lower Michigan (Kenneth E. Lewis); The Shifting Agendas of Midwestern Official State Highway Maps (James R. Akerman and Daniel Block); Michigan: Cartographic Perspectives on the Great Lakes State (Gerald A. Danzer); About the Contributors; Index.

Reviews

"A seminal work of meticulous and articulate scholarship"
"Expertly compiled and deftly edited by David I. Macleod (Professor of History, Central Michigan University), Mapping In Michigan & The Great Lakes Region is a compilation of twelve studies that, taken together, illustrated the many different configurations taken by geographical, urban, and property maps of and around the Great Lakes and the state of Michigan, including changes within a single region. The sixteen learned and expert contributors reveal the history of the area's cartography and deal with such specifics as the peninsulas and freshwater seas, the history mapping this region, how the Europeans appropriated and settled these lands, social and political negotiations and conflicts, and more. Profusely illustrated throughout with reproductions of historic maps from the beginnings of regional exploration down to the present day, Mapping In Michigan & The Great Lakes Region is a seminal work of meticulous and articulate scholarship which is very strongly recommended for academic library American History reference collections, as well as a personal library acquisition selection for cartography enthusiasts." -Midwest Book Review

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"...an outstanding look at the history and variety of mapping as seen with the Great Lakes area as its focus...." - Historical Society of Michigan Chronicle