Stories

Mapping the Imagination, Stories, cartographer, mapping, Berlin, history, Berlin Wall, Palestine, pictorial, map, engraving, economy, meteorite, Waco, Texas, Australia, material culture, local, colonialism, narrative, shaping of land, constellations, chart, stars, Dutch, East Indies, trading, navigator, Ptolemy, Greeks

  • 'Harmonia Macrocosmica', Andreas Cellarius



    Andreas Cellarius (1596-1665)
    'Harmonia Macrocosmica'
    1661
    Engraving on paper, coloured by hand
    Published by Johannes Jansson, Amsterdam
    NAL pressmark 100.C.2

    The southern hemisphere constellations were first published in 1598 by mapmaker Petrus Plancius. Taking advantage of Dutch trading in the East Indies, Plancius had asked navigator Pieter Keyser to chart the stars during a 1595 voyage. Previously, European star charts had showed only the stars visible to Ptolemy and the ancient Greeks.

  • 'Meteorite Misses Waco', Cornelia Parker



    Cornelia Parker (born 1956)
    'Meteorite Misses Waco, Texas'
    2001
    Printed atlas with scorched mark and burnt hole
    Museum no. E.262-2005
    Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund

    This is from a series called 'Meteorite Lands in the Middle of Nowhere' for which the artist heated a tiny meteorite and scorched six selected place names in the USA on six maps. Some of her meteorites make direct hits, others are near misses, but all the place names have been chosen for their powerful associations.

  • 'Gelam Nguzu Kazi [Dugong My Son]', David Bosun



    David Bosun (born 1973)
    'Gelam Nguzu Kazi [Dugong My Son]'
    2001
    Linocut on paper
    Museum no. E.1092-2002
    Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund
    © David Bosun

    In the 1990s young artists in the Torres Strait Islands, north of Australia, began to rediscover their local material culture, largely lost under colonialism. They made linocut prints celebrating traditional visual patterns, creation myths and other stories. In this print, the story relates to the shaping of the land itself, described in a map-like narrative.

  • Pictorial map of Palestine, Edmund Evans



    Edmund Evans (1826-1905) after William Harry Rogers (1825-73)
    Pictorial map of Palestine
    About 1850-1900
    Wood engraving on paper
    Published by James Nisbet & Co., London
    Museum no. E.945:48-1976

    Like similar publishers, James Nisbet used stock illustrations to enliven cheaper work. Here biblical scenes add interest and instruction to a pre-existing map. Edmund Evans, the leading wood-engraver in London in the 1860s, was known for his brilliant colours. In this instance, he printed map and illustrations in the same colours for economy.