Embodying Landscape, Transposing Space

François Matthes's topographical maps of the Grand Canyon

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

#nacis2015

Transcript

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

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

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

   View Slide

4. USGS, 1873. Courtesy Library of Congress.
   

   View Slide

5. PLANE TABLE
   MAPPING:
   a primer
   

   View Slide

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

   View Slide

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

   View Slide

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
   

   View Slide

9. MATTHES AT THE GRAND
   CANYON
   

   View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

27. View Slide

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

    View Slide

29. Thank you!
    nbbauch@stanford.edu
    Detail from Bright Angel Quadrangle, 1906. Francois Matthes, topographer. Courtesy Branner Library, Stanford University.
    

    View Slide

30. View Slide

31. Extra  slides  
     
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide