Rare, early maps of N.C., Southeast are topics of exhibit, lecture at UNC

By JENA WITTKAMP
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- A desert in western North Carolina? A map with "north" at the right?

These and other unusual interpretations are among features of 25 early maps on display through Dec. 31 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library.

The free public exhibit, "Art to Science: America and the Southeast in Early Maps," covers nearly 300 years of history. The maps range from one of the earliest ever printed, in 1493, to one made in 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution.

In a Nov. 14 lecture related to the exhibit, the chief of the New York Public Library’s map division will discuss how exploration and empire building transformed England, and how this transformation was reflected in maps of the era.

Dr. Elizabeth Chenault, public services librarian for the Rare Books Collection in Wilson, and Dr. Charles McNamara, collection curator, organized the exhibit, which is displayed in the Melba Remig Saltarelli Exhibit Room.

"The maps in this exhibit help us comprehend the wonder of discovery," Chenault said. European cartographers drew the maps from descriptions of the new land and manuscript maps. The maps were then printed from woodcuts or engravings. Many of them are hand-colored.

The maps are on loan from Dr. Dave Davis of Atlanta, who earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from UNC in 1960 and 1963, respectively. Chenault traveled to Davis’s home to select maps from his extensive collection for the exhibit.

"We tried to make the choices based on the historical significance, the beauty of the engraving, the importance or scarcity of given maps and the different perspectives they present," Chenault said. The maps vary in size, with the largest being 5 feet by 4.5 feet and taking up two display cases.

"There are many early and important maps that show what we recognize today as geographic fallacies," Chenault said. Because mapmakers didn’t always have detailed information about the newly discovered areas, they would sometimes create decorative elements from the explorer’s descriptions. A 16^th-century map of North and South America in the exhibit features a drawing of what to Europeans was an exotic animal, the possum.

Alice Hudson of the New York Public Library will speak at 6 p.m. Nov. 14 in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room in Wilson. The free public lecture, "From Dawn to Dusk, England Turns from East to West," will help listeners place the mapping of North Carolina at that time within the context of English exploration and settlement of the Middle Atlantic coast.

"Alice Hudson will explore how England's perspective on world exploration affected the way maps were made over time," said Peggy Myers, associate director of library development at UNC. "Listeners will be able to apply her discussion to the current exhibit."

Hudson has spent the past two decades building and studying the map collection of the New York Public Library.

Davis is the founder and president of Piedmont Psychiatric Clinic in Atlanta and the adolescent and child programs at Peachtree-Parkwood Hospital. He also founded Parkwood Day Hospital. The Consumer’s Research Council of America voted Davis "America’s Top Psychiatrist" in 2003, and he was chosen as one of "America’s Top Rated Physicians" by the Guide to Top Doctors from 1999- 2002. He is certified in clinical psychiatry, psychiatric administration and management, forensic psychiatry and disability analysis. He founded the Georgia Map Collector’s Club.

Wilson Library opens from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, contact Kate Barnhart at 843-5660 or by e-mail at Kate_Barnhart@unc.edu.

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(Wittkamp, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in women’s studies and journalism and mass communication.)

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Chenault, 962-1143, chenault@email.unc.edu
News Services Contact: L.J. Toler, 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu