Filling
in the Blanks
Could
you draw an accurate map of a big lake you had never seen?
European
explorers didn't get the details of the Great Lakes right the first time
either! They worked from information sent back by explorers and
missionaries. It took many years to get enough facts to make accurate
maps.
The
Great Lakes are recognizable but incomplete on the earliest
map in this exhibit, and much of the continent is simply blank.
Important commercial and strategic locations like the straits of the St.
Mary's River were some of the first places to be mapped in detail.
By
1755 the French and British knew that the Great Lakes region—strategically
located and rich in resources—was worth fighting over.
 This
hand-colored outline map of the Great Lakes map is by Marco Vincenzo
Coronelli, Venice, Italy. It was printed in 1695. Coronelli notes the explorations of Marquette and Joliet
(1673) along the Mississippi on the map. In making the map
Coronelli paid special attention to their accounts and to those of
Récollet priest Louis Hennepin who explored the Mississippi with La Salle
in 1679-80.
What's
Cool About Maps? features 29 maps from the collection of the Jesse
Besser Museum, Alpena, Michigan. The exhibit was at the Michigan Historical Museum, Lansing, Michigan, during the fall of 2001.
This
online minitour of the exhibit features one map from each of seven
themes. Visit each of the themes by clicking on the titles in the left
column. The map images were photographed under existing light
conditions in the gallery. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.
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