Going to Texas:

Five Centuries of Texas Maps

Maps are more than directions for how to get from one place to another. They reflect the mapmaker's perspective on geography and, perhaps, geology. Equally importantly, they reveal the political, economic, and social environment of the time in which they were made. They become, in effect, historical artifacts.

Despite the mathematical precision involved, cartography remains more art than science even in the twenty-first century as maps reflect disputed borders, names of states or cities or regions, and territorial aspirations. Maps serve a purpose, and the subject matter depicted tells us something about the motives of those who made and commissioned the maps.

Maps of Texas, particularly the early ones, also say something about the countries claiming the land at the time the map was made. The Spanish and Mexicans used a measurement approximately three inches shorter than the one Americans used. Thus, three inches, multiplied by acres upon acres, inevitably created confusion and fostered disputes between individual land owners as well as nations.

Maps were also utilitarian in how they measured land. Neither the acre nor the hectar was the standard measure used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Instead, surveyors applied labors and leagues. A labor reflected the size of a parcel of land on which one could labor or farm, whereas leagues represented larger properties, such as those required for ranching.

The maps in this exhibition should be viewed with an eye toward what the map maker wanted you to see and the motives that prompted the map's creation. Was the cartographer trying to spur immigration or air travel, or was he or she identifying areas of great mineral wealth and patterns of economic growth? These maps tell us much about the geography of Texas, but also about its economics, social milieu, history, politics, foreign policy and politics at given moments in history. In essence, these maps represent time capsules, reflecting not only the geography of Texas, but also changing geopolitical realities. They speak to us of economic and social development, history, politics, and foreign. In doing so, they provide a window into the things that make Texas unique.

To order the catalogue for the "Going to Texas: Five Centuries of Texas Maps" Exhibition click HERE.