Reviews Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad by Derek Hayes University of California Press, Berkeley, 2010. Illustrations , maps, bibliography, index. 224 pages. Historical Atlas of the American West by Derek Hayes University of California Press, Berkeley, 2009. Illustrations , maps, bibliography, index. 288 pages. $39.95 cloth. Both the content and popularity of Derek Hayes’s books are testimony to how embedded map consciousness is in our society. Since 1999,in a remarkable series of twelve historical atlases, Hayes has illustrated how mapmakers have always used maps to guide, educate, and persuade us. Hayes’s interest is to illustrate the didactic function of maps as a“supplement to conventional histories” (Historical Atlas of the American West, p. 6). These two historical atlases continue the same format of previous publications;chapters are arranged thematically and chronologically with page design and text arranged and written by Hayes. High-resolution images on each page often include several detailed views of one map. Informative captions for most images supplement the text. Hayes also provides a useful bibliography accompanied by a valuable map catalog that cites the source of each image, including the call number from institutional archives. The Historical Atlas of the American West includes more than six hundred images of maps and illustrations and is prefaced with an acknowledgement of the imperial nature of Euro-American expansion in the American West at the expense of Native populations. Hayes then takes readers on a journey from sixteenth-century pre-exploration cartographic conceptions of the West to a West increasingly articulated on maps by explorations of the Spanish, British, Russians, French, and Americans.Maps representing the politics and problems of transportation and resource utilization associated with urban development accompanied eventual settlement during the nineteenth century. The book’s last image is a 2009 map, Federal Lands and Indian Reservations. Highlights of the book include a stunning colored example of Alexander Humboldt’s 1811 map of the Spanish southwest and a well-designed two-page layout of twelve maps illustrating the cartographic evolution of political boundaries in the West from 1814 to 1851. I might quibble with Hayes’s selection of maps in his discussion of the expansion of the American Republic to the West. The exclusion of John Melish’s map of 1816 and Henry Tanner’s map of 1822 are noticeable, but the inclusion of many other superbly reproduced maps compensate for their absence. Hayes’s passion for the history of theAmerican railroad is evident in Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad; many of the nearly four hundred map images are drawn from his personal collection. From an 1809 map of the first proposed commercial railroad in the United States to a 2009 Department of Transportation map envisioning high speed rail in America, maps played an important role in understanding the origins, expansion, and development of the North American railroad system. Many of the most aesthetically appealing maps in this volume were designed to promote investment or commercial use of the railroad. An 1821 railroad map, the first to accompany a prospectus for investors, and a beautifully designed 1882 advertising page issued by the Illinois Central Railroad are striking examples. In all his atlases, Hayes draws on examples of the rich diversity of graphic representation and spatial perspective that define the genre of mapping. This diversity is why his books have such appeal to a broad audience. The scholar may discover a unique manuscript that relates to a specific area of inquiry. History buffs will appreciate how published maps articulated OHQ vol. 113, no. 2 political and commercial ideologies. General readers will delight in the sophisticated graphics of birds-eye views and promotional maps. These volumes hold something for everyone. James V. Walker Eugene, Oregon Flight of the Bumblebee: The Columbia River Packers Association and a Century in the Pursuit of Fish by Irene Martin and Roger Tetlow The Chinook Observer Publishing Company, Long Beach, Washington, 2011. Illustrations, photographs, notes, index. 224 pages, $22.95 paper. In 1899, seven small salmon canneries operating around the mouth of the Columbia River joined forces to create the Columbia River Packers Association (CRPA). The Combine, as it was known locally,became the most powerful cannery on...
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Feb 7, 2012
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