Historical Map Analysis

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This assignment prompts students with a series of questions that guide them through a structured critique of a historical map. The questions cover themes of genre, author and probable audience, historical context of the map, and the map as a source for historical geography. This activity prepares students for a subsequent assignment of researching, designing, and constructing a page for a collaboratively produced atlas. The questions are drafted with a historical map in mind, but they could also be modified for application to any map. They structure lines of inquiry about cartography, cartographers, and cartographic products that many students have never systematically thought through before