Historical Maps

History Maps – Reconstruct the Past

The best way to learn about major historical events like battles, sieges, and even wars is through an old map. Moreover, a history map can help you assess the transition of cities and countries.

People interested in history, geography, archaeology, or similar fields leverage old maps to reconstruct past events.

In today’s digital era, we have access to Google maps which can bring you any location from the past or the present. However, the vintage maps with accurate historical details hold significant importance, even today.

People cherish these maps as their “forever memories” and as an abode to their ancestors. So even if you are not much into history but have a knack for collecting antiques, a vintage map as a wall hanging will be a classy touch to your living room.

So, if you are planning to get an old map, better to learn a little about them.

Importance of History Maps

The first thing that you need to understand is what maps are. Not literally; we know you can recognize a map when you see one, but what does it do?

What is the purpose of studying an old map- the old routes when they have already been transitioned into the modern world buildings and roads?

Well, historical maps have more to offer than you can imagine.

Specifically, maps (old or new) are visualizations or graphic representations of space and time. For example, a map of London is not the drawing of a city itself but a representation of London at an abstract and manageable scale.

A mapmaker decides how the drawing looks- how the directions are organized and navigated. The diagram must appear to the reader as a historical text, or it will just be a useless piece of parchment.

While you may consider an old map as portraits of contemporary landscape or historical sites, they hold much more information. For example, these maps from the past can be a record of a particular place’s resources or the population’s census for commercial purposes.

Subsequently, history maps help you time travel to the past in your imagination. See the world as it was way before your grandparents were born.

For instance, a 1836 Moscow map displays many fascinating historical features. The 1836’s Moscow appears to be a quieter and smaller town compared to 2022’s metropolitan city. These maps can be used to date significant sites like churches and museums. Old maps can enable historians to create a transitioning sequence of events that shows a city or place changing.

However, it is crucial to understand that a map view often displays an objective image narration. Therefore, if you are looking for a subjective interpretation, it can be hard to decipher with just the map-ritual facts!

Yet, there is no denying that “old maps are embedded in their history,” so you read and interpret what the “map” wants you to!

Mainly, as a critical map-reader, you can interpret the details as:

• Factual: Along with old maps, the reader must assess the contextualized information such as documents or history books. It is crucial to understand that a drawing made by a human in the past had their perceptions, hopes, and interests that would have influenced the map. This is why; you need supplemental resources to affirm the information.
• Reality: History maps help to recreate reality. Mapping certain events inculcates aura of permanence and authenticity to the present, taking the viewer back to the past.

Maps from the past often demonstrate the following periods that hold critical value even today:

• Ancient times
• Middle ages
• Renaissance maps
• Modern times

The details of different eras, their rulers, lifestyles, and events; everything can be identified from a well-preserved chart from the past. Maps give context to history and stir inspiration in people.

Reasons to Use Old Maps Today

In today’s digital era, we can access our past with just one click. When old, worn-out maps are refabricated, they become accessible to people online. However, people who have their reasons will show interest in map reading. For the rest, they are still just pieces of parchments with ancient drawings on them.

Some of the significant reasons that a historian or a regular person may want to use a map include:

• Old maps are tools for recreating the past to depict the records of cities, valuable places, landscapes, and historical features that no longer exist or have changed dramatically
• To maintain the records of valuable past processes, relationships, and routes such as for trade or migration. For instance, the expansion of Europe over the world.
• To preserve the culture of mapmaking, such as how to make maps or display the events/places around the world.
• To understand the relationship that existed between the terrain and military operations.
• To add data to new, modern maps (Google maps) for clear indications of places, positions, and context.
• To show the spread of religion, people, cities, countries, and even continents.
• As a valuable possession for ancestry researchers and enthusiasts
• Ancient maps refurbish the memories and connect you with the past events

Publishers today continue to make or recreate history maps to enhance descriptive and pictorial information with supplemental text and facts.

Now, for whatever reason you plan to get a map, you must know how to read and use it. Else, it will just be a piece for décor, nothing more.

Read an Old Map the New Way

If you are the modern-day mapmaker or historian, you must include the events from the past to create maps for the future. And to do that, you must be an avid map reader and interpreter.

The good part is that maps have many directions, symbols, or instructions that can help the reader to understand them.

1.      Symbols

History maps are incredibly detailed, with many significant landmarks and features. They teach every building, every route that is humanly possible to add. To help you point out the relevant parts, cartographers or mapmakers use various symbols to label them.

So, as a map-reader, you must understand and use those symbols.

2.      Cardinal directions

Maps have four main cardinal directions; north, west, east, and south. These are represented with small arrows. In addition, most history maps have wind rose, or compass rose to help you understand the navigation.

3.      Images and text

The new world’s cartographers use high-end technology to recreate the details of historical maps. With high-resolution images and texts, even a regular person can read maps and decipher past events to their best understanding.

4.      Scale

Most charts have scales that allow the map reader to measure the distances (determine longitude and latitude). In addition, scales on old maps may be represented with “dividers” that aid measurements.

5.      Compare

When you want to understand the past and how the world has changed, it is essential to use maps from the different timelines and then compare. It will enable you to learn what has changed and what has remained the same. You can see that in detailed with world maps.

Two Major Problems with Using Old Maps

Maps can be centuries old, narrating stories from the past when even your ancestors were not born. An old parchment paper is prone to wear and tear. So, how do you read those maps or ensure their credibility? You were not there, and you do not know if something happened the way a map tells you.

1. Thought process of the cartographer (mapmaker)

It is often said, and rightfully so, that it is the cartographer’s vision or lens through which the history of the map-reader view. What if the mapmaker was amongst the oppressors or anticipated a battle or siege differently than it was? That will be problematic.

This is why maps are preserved with care, and the authenticity of mapmakers is always a concern for today’s cartographers. To ensure credibility, the events from a map are always cross-verified with the books and other resources of history from the same time.

2. Faded text and images

The map is a pictorial representation of events during a specific period. But what if the hand-made, hundreds and thousands of years old graphics are no longer in good condition? What if a particular part of the map has succumbed to wear and tear; what will a researcher or historian do with incomplete history?

Fortunately, digital technologies have revolutionized the field of mapmaking. Map geeks today use high-resolution and modern technological aid to accurately recreate the images, texts, symbols, or any other information on the map.

The best part is that they can turn the old, dull, black, and grey parchments into colorful, aesthetically pleasing maps.

Conclusion

It requires critical thinking, analysis, and an interest in history to become a mapmaker or a map-reader. In addition, you must engage with various information resources available on multiple media, both in digital and printed forms.

Old or historical drawings uniquely demonstrate the past, relinquish the present and analyze how the changes may look in the future.

Get a beautiful yet readable old map and become a history enthusiast, or hang it on your wall with other vintage pieces.