GeoCarta

B etween 1603 and 1616, French explorer and cartographer Samuel de Champlain made 7 trips into the interior of what would become Canada. During his explorations, Champlain collected geographic information for his maps and journals, created trading alliances with the numerous native tribes and founded Québec City. The Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine has compiled his journeys into a new map, titled "They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places, and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616."

More than depicting places, the map attempts to provide a written narrative of Champlain’s explorations, quoting extensively from his journals. In a bit of cartographic license, the mapmakers also include imagined dialog from native tribes. In another twist on traditional mapmaking, the cartographers chose to symbolize Champlain’s multiple journeys as a ribbon, without arrowheads or directionality. This ribbon narrows or expands with the contracting and widening of Champlain’s travel experiences, and dissolves when he is lost. Without arrowheads, the reader must use the map’s narrative to interpret the direction.

The 40" x 60" map was produced by Michael Hermann, senior cartographer at the Canadian-American Center, and Margaret Pearce, assistant professor of geography at Ohio University. University of Maine professor of French Raymond Pelletier, served as translator. It’s available from the Canadian-American center for $14.99.

See also:

1. University Grabs $96,800 Grant for State of the Art GIS/GPS Lab
2. Rare 1612 Champlain Map Goes for Three Times Estimate

Tags: Canada, Champlain, University of Maine

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