Edward Quin, A.D. 1498. The Discovery of America, 1830
Amateur cartographer Edward Quin’s maps are remarkable for what they omit. Each of the maps contained in his Historical Atlas depicts “the world as known at different periods”, as he put it, with ominous black clouds demarcating the boundaries of geographical knowledge at each particular point in history. The reader’s point of view remains constant, but what it reveals does not. From the Biblical flood to the Industrial Revolution, the clouds gradually recede until eventually we see the world with an omniscient eye. Designed as an educational tool for British schoolchildren, Quin’s atlas offers a visually striking overview of human history told through key moments of discovery and domination, while also inadvertently demonstrating the ideology of empire. Even when his billowing clouds have vanished from the map, “barbarous and uncivilized countries” requiring further exploration remain marked out by flat olive shading. ◉