The Lost Maps

There are now a group of individuals who are performing research on the surviving maps of David Thompson (1770-1857). Currently, my colleagues and I are focussing our attention on the surviving versions of the map delivered by Thompson to his employer, the North West Company at Fort William and is commonly known as the Great Map of 1814. The surviving versions of this map however have variations on its title depending on where the surviving map is located. My specific role in this exercise is the digital cataloguing of the version which exists at the National Archives in Kew England, titled the ‘Map of North America for 84 Degrees West to the Pacific Ocean’.

Very little attention has been paid attention to the maps created by Thompson, and I dare say Peter Fidler as well. This has always struck me as odd as so much attention has been paid to map makers such as Arrowsmith. This fact is exasperating given the fact that the maps created by Aaron Arrowsmith, which were created at a much smaller scale, utilized a great deal of survey data exclusively from Thompson and Fidler’s work. It has always puzzled why so little attention has been paid to the surveyors of the day who experienced firsthand the landscapes they wrote about and illustrated.

Although David Thompson’s 1814 map was not the only map produced of the northwest in the early to late 19th Century, it was the first to accurately portray this portion of the continent from the Pacific to the Hudson’s Bay. Within the surviving versions of the 1814 map, and other maps created by him; there is evidence that provides testimony of Thompson’s remarkable talents as a cartographer, his clear understanding of surveying, his obvious desire to demonstrate his ability to understand the continent in terms of measured distance and area, and his need to say so much within the context of a map.

Until this evidence is presented in an appropriate fashion, his maps will forever remain lost…

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