• Cabotia and Fredonia

    Amanda Murphyao [This is the ninth essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.] In his 1814 “Map of Cabotia,” John Purdy proposed the name “Cabotia” for Canada. Since Purdy noted that any “future improvement” for the map would be welcome,… Continue Reading

  • Colonizing St. John Island: A History in Maps

    S. Max Edelson [This is the eighth essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.] This essay examines the Board of Trade’s survey and plan for St. John Island (renamed Prince Edward in 1798). It is part of a larger study… Continue Reading

  • Mapping the End of Empire

    Jeffers Lennox [This is the seventh essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.] If we accept the argument that maps helped create and resist empires (and we should, or else I’ve just wasted a decade of my life), we should… Continue Reading

  • Absence Makes the Art. Go Ponder.

    [This is the sixth essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.]  Alan MacEachern The following post may not suit a scholarly discussion on cartography and empire. You’ve been warned. Here be dragons, and all that. This summer, I curated… Continue Reading

  • L’île aux démons: cartographie d’un mirage

    [This is the fifith essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.]  Alban Berson On serait bien en peine de pointer sur une carte d’aujourd’hui un vaste archipel ou une île imposante au Nord de Terre-Neuve, sur la côte du… Continue Reading

  • Early-Modern Place Names in Today’s Canada

    [This is the third essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.]  Lauren Beck The Geographic Names Board of Canada (GNBC) provides scholars with a database of place names that allows users to look up the location of a place name,… Continue Reading

  • La cartographie des routes impériales françaises: le cas du fleuve Saint-Laurent au XVIIIe siècle

    Çà et là, l’historiographie a rappelé le rôle singulier de la cartographie pratiquée dans un contexte colonial : offrir des connaissances géographiques aux dirigeants qui souhaitent asseoir leur emprise sur un territoire étranger. Les cartographes deviennent ainsi des agents bâtisseurs d’empire, déployant leur savoir-faire technique au profit d’un pouvoir impérial et d’un souverain lui-même très limité dans ses déplacements.

  • Mapping Land Tenure Pluralism in the St. Lawrence River Valley

    Julia Lewandoski [This essay kicks off a Borealia series on Cartography and Empire-on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.]  After the 1763 Peace of Paris, British officials embarked on an ambitious project to probe and depict the territories—many in reality still under indigenous sovereignty—that they now considered… Continue Reading