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About the Author |
Maps for Henry Norwood |
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Maps of the area were incomplete and inaccurate in the seventeenth century. After considerable research into modern and antique maps, I created over 20 maps to trace Norwood's extensive travels. Pen and ink illustrations can provide a glimpse into the time when natives roamed the wilderness and colonists were just beginning to build a culture. The maps and sketches are done in a style that Norwood might have made for himself.
It was the beginning of my fascination with the art and science of cartography. The whole idea of making a drawing that depicts a birds-eye view of the world I find intriguing. There are so many different ways that different map makers used to explain mountains, swamps and rivers. Old maps can tell us about a different time and can show how things have changed. Old historic maps are beautiful as art, with ornate borders and lettering. Illustrations are more than decoration, often giving graphic details about the natives and flora and fauna of a region. The distortions of coastlines, due to a lack of longitude coordinates, gives an old map a romantic look. Now with satellite imagery and digital plotting, maps are more dependable. We can read the neat lines and uniform symbols on a contemporary map to find our way. As an artist, I look for the middle ground. I want to make a map expressive and readable in terms of showing a place and time but give it that antique look I find so fascinating. I want to create a map that is accurate but visually interesting. My native Chesapeake Bay region seems an ideal subject for illustrative maps, and I have created many of them. One of the earliest was printed in a signed and numbered edition of 500 in 1982. Chesapeake Bay Tidewater Region was printed with brown ink on a parchment type paper. When first sales proved slow I began to watercolor each print until I had colored almost the whole edition. (now sold out) A couple years later I printed another Chesapeake Bay map, this one a color poster sized 18x24 edition, signed but not numbered or limited. Copies of this are available at $30. (Includes shipping) My interest in maps was brought to the attention of local writer, John V. Dennis, and he asked me to make full page illustrated maps for his book Great Cypress Swamps. Some of the swamps proved to be a challenge as I struggled to find a way to express contrasts of bog, floating islands, water and firm land. Since making the swamp maps, I have made maps of hummingbird migratory routes and nature trails, river systems and nesting sites for Mr. Dennis, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and others. When developing the design for a mural at Furnace Town Historic site near Snow Hill, MD I needed to show the area as it might have looked in 1830. Rather than show a limited scene, I decided to create a birds-eye view of the area. Based on research and imagination, the result is a kind of map, with painted curled parchment edges and shadows. A small industrial town is busy with workers carrying bundles and a farmer plowing his field. Children run and play or carry water and do chores. Dozens of buildings and over 150 figures make this mural popular with visitors. Children like to look at the different areas and discover the little details; a cat chasing a mouse, otters in the water, boys fishing. After completing the mural in 1999 I turned back to a project I have been researching several years; Henry Norwood. When I read Norwood's account of his visit to the Eastern Shore in 1650, mapping his travels was my first impulse. As I studied satellite photographs and old and new maps, I gradually added more details to the story through the maps. I found where he was from and many of the places he visited. I pored over every old map I could find to see how the Chesapeake area was viewed through the centuries. I found that the maps made by Captain John Smith in the early part of the 1600s were still in use for most of that century, and had been updated and improved and reprinted many times. The settlers were established on the lower part of the Eastern Shore early in seventeenth century but it was 1700 before maps were more than vague about the middle part of the Delmarva Peninsula. I was fascinated to see that one of the maps made by Auguste Hermann for the Calverts of Maryland is remarkably like the satellite photograph of the same region. The satellite view is at just enough of an angle to distort the image in the same way as the old map. Hermann was amazingly accurate considering the level of technology at the time. The design for the book cover is based on the satellite photograph and created as an antique styled map. There are few place names but it is made from Norwood's viewpoint and generally includes only what he knew and is meant only as illustration. Cavalier's Adventure contains many maps intended for information, and these are not as ornate. The page size restrictions limits the amount of content possible so they are designed plainly. The only exception is the Frontspiece, another illustrative map of the region. For an artist interested interest in the history and heritage of a region, map making was a natural direction. Drawing maps in an old style gives me a sense of connection with those that made or pored over maps and dreamed of distant places. - Sharon Himes |
 'Maps for Henry Norwood'
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A
note on the Maps