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Charting Texas History

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Everyone has access to a map, nowadays, with a simple click on an app. A cross-country drive is accompanied by a soothing voice telling us every turn, guided by pinpoint satellite navigation. But once, a map was more than a way to get from A to B. It was a geopolitical guide, a source of survival, of rebellion. It was also a work of art. Mapping Texas: A Cartographic Journey, 1561-1860, compiled from The Texas Collection at Baylor University, is the perfect addition for lovers of history, geography, or art. There is a brief introduction, and the maps are presented in sections that are loosely themed, but editor John S. Wilson writes that the book “is not intended to be an academic, scholarly, or exhaustive work on Texas maps.” That may not be the intention, but the book can certainly lead one down a rabbit hole of study if one chooses (and one most likely will choose). It is interesting to see how accurate the early maps are considering the lack of technology, although there are some interesting distortions. Of course, Texas was not always named such. In Fig. 1.04, the region falls under the area called Floride. In Fig. 1.05 we see it is part of Louisiana territory. It is not until 1783’s “Map or the European Settlements in Mexico or New Spain and the West Indies” that we find a designation for Tecas. It is not until 1816 that we find maps that clearly correspond to what we recognize today. The fifth section of Mapping Texas, by Sierra M. Wilson, is devoted to the map as art, specifically the illustrations or cartouches, embellishments that indicate the artist or printer. The style varies according to the fashions of the day in the country of origin. Mapping Texas: A Cartographic Journey, 1561-1860 is a relatively slim volume at 121 pages, but the 46 beautiful reproductions will draw the curious reader back to its pages time after time.