Catalogue
Tom Harper on the book that accompanies a survey of the cartographic influence of 20th-century maps
The British Library’s exhibition Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line and its accompanying book is the latest in a line of 21st-century exhibitions focusing on maps as cultural artefacts that contain insights into the periods they were made in. Exhibitions at the Palazzo Reale in Milan in 2001, Chicago Field Museum in 2007 and the British Library in 2010 have gathered maps from across millennia, juxtaposing medieval mappa mundi with modern art-maps to reveal crucial lessons of the past.
Drawing the Line is the first map exhibition to focus on the 20th century. It is a period that continues to influence the present, 100 years since the great Western Front offensives, 50 since the first manned space flights and 25 since the fall of communism.
It was also a century where maps came to exert a more powerful influence in society. Thanks to a rise in teaching geography, widened horizons and cheaper production, maps arrived at people’s fingertips more frequently and easily, helping them to navigate a brave new world.
The historical value of 20th-century maps has been acknowledged in recent years, particularly by the publication of the 20th-century volume, the History of Cartography, a project by the University of Chicago Press.
As Drawing the Line illustrates, the period remains complex and subjective, and any such exhibition can only be a selective survey. Choosing only 200 maps from the British Library’s collection of 4.5 million meant missing out significant areas and, as is outlined in the book’s introduction, that selection was itself limited by the western bias of the 20th-century cartography held by the library.
Although maps produced across six continents are included, they mostly conform to western conventions, a legacy of the expansion of this cartographic method during the period.
The library’s relatively recent admittance of ephemeral mapping – maps in games, posters, three-dimensional forms – to the cartographic canon has enabled the collection to yield a broader array of 20th-century maps. A number of these are reproduced for the first time in the chapter on everyday life.
There are many ways to arrange history chronologically or geographically. The thematic approach of Drawing the Line presents several sections – War, Peace, Everyday Life, Money and Movement (corresponding with chapters by Jeremy Black, Mike Heffernan, Tim Bryars, Nick Baron and myself). This enabled issues spread across the century to be assessed thoroughly, such as immigration, comparing Arkell’s 1900 map of Jewish east London and Dorling’s 1995 map of ethnic Britain, and communications, with Gill’s 1945 submarine cable map and Eick’s 1996 intranet traffic map. Around two-thirds of the book’s images appear in the exhibition and a number of them are in different sections from the show.
Of course, this thematic approach necessitated overlaps, particularly between the War and Peace sections, reflecting the continuing debate about the nature of the 20th century and status of the cold war era. Heffernan’s chapter references this tension. After all, the existence of postwar German (1945) and Rwandan (1998) refugee maps was a result of war, while the wartime Abercrombie London plan (1944) and Atlantic Charter map (1942) anticipated peace.
Similarly, the economic factors of war – in a 1900 Boer War diamond mine map (illustrated in Black’s chapter) – and peace, seen in clothes made from silk escape maps in the postwar rationing era (illustrated in Bryars’ chapter), are difficult to separate.
Finally, the subjective and often sensitive nature of many 20th-century episodes is not offset by their being witnessed through maps. If anything, maps amplify sensitivities. A map marked up during the Sykes-Picot talks of 1915-16 retains an emotive power. A 1990 Soviet military map of Brighton suggests a threat, at least to those in Brighton.
The map is the supreme passive-aggressive object, and understanding the terms of its continuing power is the aim of the British Library’s exhibition.
Tom Harper is the lead curator of maps at the British Library, London. Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line is on until 1 March
Drawing the Line is the first map exhibition to focus on the 20th century. It is a period that continues to influence the present, 100 years since the great Western Front offensives, 50 since the first manned space flights and 25 since the fall of communism.
It was also a century where maps came to exert a more powerful influence in society. Thanks to a rise in teaching geography, widened horizons and cheaper production, maps arrived at people’s fingertips more frequently and easily, helping them to navigate a brave new world.
The historical value of 20th-century maps has been acknowledged in recent years, particularly by the publication of the 20th-century volume, the History of Cartography, a project by the University of Chicago Press.
As Drawing the Line illustrates, the period remains complex and subjective, and any such exhibition can only be a selective survey. Choosing only 200 maps from the British Library’s collection of 4.5 million meant missing out significant areas and, as is outlined in the book’s introduction, that selection was itself limited by the western bias of the 20th-century cartography held by the library.
Although maps produced across six continents are included, they mostly conform to western conventions, a legacy of the expansion of this cartographic method during the period.
The library’s relatively recent admittance of ephemeral mapping – maps in games, posters, three-dimensional forms – to the cartographic canon has enabled the collection to yield a broader array of 20th-century maps. A number of these are reproduced for the first time in the chapter on everyday life.
There are many ways to arrange history chronologically or geographically. The thematic approach of Drawing the Line presents several sections – War, Peace, Everyday Life, Money and Movement (corresponding with chapters by Jeremy Black, Mike Heffernan, Tim Bryars, Nick Baron and myself). This enabled issues spread across the century to be assessed thoroughly, such as immigration, comparing Arkell’s 1900 map of Jewish east London and Dorling’s 1995 map of ethnic Britain, and communications, with Gill’s 1945 submarine cable map and Eick’s 1996 intranet traffic map. Around two-thirds of the book’s images appear in the exhibition and a number of them are in different sections from the show.
Of course, this thematic approach necessitated overlaps, particularly between the War and Peace sections, reflecting the continuing debate about the nature of the 20th century and status of the cold war era. Heffernan’s chapter references this tension. After all, the existence of postwar German (1945) and Rwandan (1998) refugee maps was a result of war, while the wartime Abercrombie London plan (1944) and Atlantic Charter map (1942) anticipated peace.
Similarly, the economic factors of war – in a 1900 Boer War diamond mine map (illustrated in Black’s chapter) – and peace, seen in clothes made from silk escape maps in the postwar rationing era (illustrated in Bryars’ chapter), are difficult to separate.
Finally, the subjective and often sensitive nature of many 20th-century episodes is not offset by their being witnessed through maps. If anything, maps amplify sensitivities. A map marked up during the Sykes-Picot talks of 1915-16 retains an emotive power. A 1990 Soviet military map of Brighton suggests a threat, at least to those in Brighton.
The map is the supreme passive-aggressive object, and understanding the terms of its continuing power is the aim of the British Library’s exhibition.
Tom Harper is the lead curator of maps at the British Library, London. Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line is on until 1 March