Words and pictures

The latest book I started reading is “The Geographic Revolution in early America : Maps, literacy, & national identity” by Martin Brückner (2006).

Whether it’s a good book or not I’m not yet sure. I just barely got started.

But in the introduction, Brückner calls attention to something I hadn’t ever thought of before. The literal meaning of the Greek word geography is, “to record, draw, and write the earth.” In other words, as he points out, geography is about the verbal as well as the visual. Geography is “a material form and stylistic device of literary production.”

I’m pretty sure he’s talking about more than just maps, but it’s true, a map consists of words as well as pictures, even if it’s just some sort of legend.

Here’s another map, showing section 7 in Porter Township, Cass County, Michigan, from an 1872 atlas. (This map fragment is courtesy of historicmapworks.com. If you click on the map, you’ll be taken to the county map from which it was taken.)

This map, too, has words as well as pictures. The words I’m interested in are Schellhammer and Schelhamer. (I’m not sure if the different spellings are significant.) Two Schellhammers served in the militia during the Black Hawk war, and these places may have a connection to them. I’m hoping to go for a ride, soon, to check the places out, and to see if either of the residences marked on the map are still standing. I’ve already ridden on some of the roads that are shown, but it has been a while. And I didn’t know about the Schellhammers when I did it.

I’ve marked Black Hawk’s old route from the 1820s in yellow.