Pioneer River Navigation Maps

 

Pioneer River Navigation Maps 

          In the mid-1830s, J. Duff’s Traveller’s Guide were available for sale on western steamboats. The map indicated the general shape of the river channel, gave the location of towns and cities, listed distances between landings, and sometimes included a range of steamboat fares. As might be expected, they almost always focused on the portion of the river system that was actually navigable by steamers. If one were to depart from the main stem of the river to embark on an overland journey, a river map would have been useless because it usually did not give information about the broader region or network of transportation options.  

          Here is the entire 1838 map of the Ohio River and Mississippi River followed by a section that shows Owensboro and the Green River:

                 Here is a map made in 1851 showing the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers:

        

              And a section of the above map showing the Green River area:

            

              By 1866 the Ribbon Map of the Father of Waters was published that showed all 2,600 miles of the Mississippi River. The map is a continuous strip that measures nearly eleven feet long and a little over two inches wide. 

Actual 1866 Map - Unrolled

Actual 1866 Map - Unrolled in Strips

           When encountering it in person, the river only gradually comes into view over time, making the experience of using the ribbon map more like traveling on the river itself. The digital image serves as a solution to a representational problem: namely, how a map of such an unusual size and shape can be made to conform to a rectangular screen. This twenty-first century challenge seems remote from the context of the post-Civil War era to which this map dates, but it mirrors difficulties that nineteenth-century Americans faced in translating their ideas and experiences of the river into visual representations. Published in 1866 by St. Louis-based entrepreneurs Myron Coloney and Sidney B. Fairchild, the ribbon map’s singular focus on the river and its exaggerated dimensions assert the enduring relevance of the Mississippi River after the Civil War, both to the nation’s identity and to its commercial future.  

          These maps typically indicated the general shape of the river channel, gave the location of towns and cities, listed distances between landings, and sometimes included a range of steamboat fares. As might be expected, they almost always focused on the portion of the river system that was actually navigable by steamers. If one were to depart from the main stem of the river to embark on an overland journey, a river map would have been useless because it usually did not give information about the broader region or network of transportation options. By 1866, however, it was imperative to represent the host of railroad tracks increasingly extending from large and small cities alike. Bold black lines extend from various points along the Mississippi and testify to the centrality of the river’s location between western and eastern markets. 

Source: Nenette Luarca-Shoaf was the 2014-15 Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota.