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Embodying Landscape, Transposing Space

Embodying Landscape, Transposing Space

François Matthes's topographical maps of the Grand Canyon

Nicholas Bauch
Geographer-in-Residence
Spatial History Project
Stanford University

#nacis2015

Nathaniel V. KELSO

October 15, 2015
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  1. Embodying Landscape, Transposing Space
    François Matthes's topographical maps of the Grand Canyon
    Nicholas Bauch
    Geographer-in-Residenc
    Spatial History Project
    Stanford University

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  2. Powell “wanted to map, carefully,
    with a consistent system of
    symbols and colors, and on a
    scale large enough to serve all
    normal foreseeable uses, the
    3,000,000 square miles of the
    United States.”
    - Wallace Stegner, 1954

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  3. William B. Hartley, 1865. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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  4. USGS, 1873. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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  5. PLANE TABLE
    MAPPING:
    a primer

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  6. Image Source: U.S. Coast Survey. 1869. The Plane-
    Table and its use in Topographical Surveying. New
    York: D. Van Nostrand.

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  7. Image source: Greenhood, David. 1964. Mapping. Chicago: University of
    Chicago Press.

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  8. “The topography of the Grand
    Canyon proved to be next to ideal
    for plane-table methods ….
    Thousands of intersections and
    hundreds of elevations from one
    instrument station, - there is no
    other place on earth where it can
    be done.”
    - Francois Matthes, 1905

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  9. MATTHES AT THE GRAND
    CANYON

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  10. Francois Matthes topographical crew
    mapping the Grand Canyon. Ca. 1904.
    Courtesy Grand Canyon National Park
    Museum Collection.

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  11. North Bass Trail. 14 hiking miles over a 6,000-feet elevation gain. Google Earth. 2015.

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  12. Muav Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park. Photo by Nicholas Bauch, 2015.

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  13. North Bass Trail, Grand Canyon National Park. Photo by Nicholas Bauch, 2015.

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  14. North Bass Trail, Grand Canyon National Park. Photo by Nicholas Bauch, 2015.

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  15. Henry G. Peabody, A Grove of Pines in the Kaibab Forest, 1928. Courtesy The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

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  16. Walhalla Plateau and Kaibab Plateau, U.S. National Park
    Service.

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  17. Henry G. Peabody, Up Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Point, 1928. Courtesy The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

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  18. Shinumo Quadrangle, 1906.
    Francois Matthes,
    topographer. Courtesy
    Branner Library, Stanford
    University.

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  19. Detail, Shinumo Quadrangle, 1906. Francois Matthes, topographer. Courtesy Branner Library, Stanford University.

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  20. Bright Angel Quadrangle, 1906. Francois
    Matthes, topographer. Courtesy Branner
    Library, Stanford University.

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  21. Detail from Bright Angel Quadrangle, 1906. Francois Matthes, topographer. Courtesy Branner Library, Stanford University.

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  22. “The map (not just the plotting
    but the actual map) grows under
    your hand right out there in the
    field! …. It's mapping direct from
    nature, at first hand, like a
    painter with a landscape.”
    - David Greenhood,
    1964

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  23. Thomas Moran, Chasm of the Colorado, 1874. Department of the Interior Museum.

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  24. William Henry Holmes, Panorama From Point Sublime, Part II Looking South, 1882. Courtesy David Rumsey Map
    Collection.

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  25. Henry G. Peabody, Looking East From Grand Scenic Divide, 1899. Courtesy The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

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  26. THE TRANSPOSITION OF
    SPACE
    Changing a pictorial view into a plan view

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  28. Screen shot from Enchanting the Desert, forthcoming 2016, Stanford University
    Press.

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  29. Thank you!
    [email protected]
    Detail from Bright Angel Quadrangle, 1906. Francois Matthes, topographer. Courtesy Branner Library, Stanford University.

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  31. Extra  slides  
     

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  32. Image source: Greenhood, David. 1964. Mapping. Chicago: University of
    Chicago Press.

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  33. “The most magnificent picture of the
    Grand Canyon ever drawn, painted, or
    photographed .... Nearly diagramatic, it
    reproduces rock strata with miraculous
    accuracy - which is precisely what it was
    intended to do .... Not intended to be art,
    it succeeds in being art of a striking
    kind.”
    - Wallace Stegner, 1977

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  34. Image source: Greenhood, David. 1964. Mapping. Chicago: University of
    Chicago Press.

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