Collector of classic cartography shows the world at OSU through September

BY MARY ANN ALBRIGHT
The Entertainer

Duncan Thomas has always been fascinated by maps.

“It’s condensed information about what a place is like, what’s there. Looking at it, you can get a huge amount of information. Is it agricultural? Is it forested? What did the people do? If you know what to look for, you can learn a lot,” Thomas said.

When Thomas, an Oregon State University courtesy professor in the department of forest science and a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, looks at an old map, he sees how people used to perceive their world. In that sense, maps are record of not only geography, but also public opinion.

Thomas started collecting antique maps about 15 years ago. He bought the first in a shop in his native England.

Through September, 51 old maps from Thomas’ collection, plus photos and reproductions, will be on display at OSU’s Center for the Humanities.

Some of original maps, charts and illustrations date back to the late 1400s and sum up the history of Western map making. The show includes woodcuts, engravings and drawings, many hand-colored at the time, along with explanatory notes that take viewers from Ptolemy’s geography of the Second Century to today’s satellite images.

That the Earth is a sphere was known to the early Greeks, who also estimated its circumference and developed geometry that made the latitude and longitude grid system possible. Ptolemy (100-178 A.D.) assembled a gazetteer locating 8,000 places in Europe, Asia and Africa and very likely produced maps using a system he devised to draw a sphere in two dimensions.

But for 1300 years after Ptolemy, little progress was made in cartography, and flat earth theories ruled Europe.

During the age of discovery, when explorers needed to know the locations of newly-discovered lands and the routes to find them, map-making again became important. As with much Renaissance science in Europe, a rediscovery of classical knowledge was crucial to the revival of cartography.

Around the middle of the 16th century, more accurate survey techniques were developed. Mathematician and cartographer Gerard Mercator (1512-1594) was a key figure in the evolution of modern cartography, and several of his maps are included in Thomas’ exhibition.

The show follows the development of cartography during the next 300 years, and includes road maps, maps for property deeds and taxation, and decorative maps.

Thomas’ favorite part of the collection is a 1696 French map of North America. The map’s portrayal of Mexico is very accurate, but it depicts California as an island.

The map has many keys, because at the time there was no standardized unit of measuring distance. It also has a cartouche, which dedicates the map to the dauphin, the eldest son of King Luis XIV and heir to the French throne.

The map was first engraved in reverse onto a copper plate. The plate was then coated in ink, and pressed onto parchment under a slab of wood.

The exhibit also includes early maps of Oregon, along with a discussion of the origin of the state’s name.

Thomas spends about three months in Africa each year for his work with the Smithsonian, so his collection includes several maps from that continent.

Maps in his collection dating back to the mid-1700s demonstrate how Europeans viewed Africa at that time.

“It turned out to be rather grim. Most of the maps show Europeans went to the coast to buy slaves,” he said.

Today’s cartography relies on computer science and electronic data. Although he loves older maps, Thomas also enjoys modern map-making technology.

He uses a Global Positioning System and also spends time on Google Earth, which shows three-dimensional overviews of major cities, mountains and other terrain.

If You Go

What: Antique map exhibit

Where: Oregon State University’s Center for the Humanities, Autzen House, 811 S.W. Jefferson Ave.

When: The maps will be on display 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday through September

Information: Call 737-3537