Art Section II: Mapmaking and Naming/State Names

What experience is less common nowadays?

Holding a physical map

What information can maps give us?

Important landmarks or the quickest route from point A to point B

When did the the rise of cartography occur?

Fifteenth century

What caused cartography to become more prominent?

The age of European exploration

What did cartography become a tool for?

Navigation, exploration, control

What is used to create digital maps?

Satellite images, street views, and geological or demographic data

What is the primary function of maps?

To be accurate navigational guides

Why are maps not neutral?

Mapmakers choose what to include and exclude, and how prominent certain information is

What is an example of maps not being neutral?

A mapping app might highlight businesses that pay to boost their visibility

How were early modern maps used by Europeans?

As tools to locate and dominate places and people

What were portolan charts?

Navigational guides for sailors that mapped the outlines of coastal areas

According to William Boelhower, what kind of culture did maps help create?

A cartographic culture in which explorers imagined filling in the empty spots on maps of America with new knowledge

What did some early maps show instead of actual navigational information?

Vignettes of local people, animals, and plants or crests that marked places of political influence

What did scientific forms of mapmaking stress?

Accurate surveying, consistent scale, and use of grid lines

How had American mapmaking evolved by the late eighteenth century?

It was a highly developed business

What expectation did consumers of maps have?

That maps would accurately display features and the distances between places

What was required in order to make accurate maps?

Detailed surveying

What was an important event in the history of American mapping?

The establishment of the United States Geological Survey

When was the USGS established?

After the Civil War

What was the original purpose of the USGS?

Determining optimal routes for railway lines

What did Jason Weems say about cartography in the late nineteenth century?

It became concerned with the collection and communication of detailed and actionable information

When was the first major survey of the USGS authorized?

1867

When was the survey carried out and who led it?

1871 by Ferdinand V. Hayden

What was Hayden's task?

Map and document the Yellowstone region by recording its important features, local resources, and flora and fauna

Who else was on the survey team?

Photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran

What kinds of people were included in the scientific participants of surveys?

Surveyors, cartographers, geologists, botanists, zoologists, and meteorologists

Why were survey artists important?

Their images created visions of the American West in the popular imagination

What did each survey produce?

Detailed topographical maps

What did John Wesley Powell claim in 1884?

The most valuable scientific work the government can do for the people is making proper topographic maps of the country

What are toponyms?

Place names

What are some American toponyms derived from the names of rulers or important figures?

Maryland, Carolina, Washington, Columbia

What are some toponyms derived from local landowners or developers?

Austin, Fairfax, Bozeman

What are some toponyms derived from geographic features?

Little Rock, Council Bluffs, Grand Rapids

What are some toponyms derived from religious figures and Biblical locations?

Bethesda, Canaan, San Francisco

What are some toponyms derived from people or places of the ancient world?

Cairo, Carthage, Cincinnati

What other things do American toponyms derive from?

Words in English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Indigenous languages

What did Indigenous toponyms often indicate?

The former presence of Native peoples in the area

Who was Jaune Quick-to-See Smith?

An important Indigenous artist and curator

What was Smith known for?

Her paintings, collages, and installation art dealing with Native American history and Culture

How does State Names relate to the histories of cartography and naming?

It uses the US map to contrast scientific forms of knowing with the local relationship with place cultivated in many Native communities

When was Smith born?

1940

What tribe was Smith a member of?

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Why was Smith's childhood difficult?

She was raised by a single father who often struggled to find work as a horse trainer and rodeo performer

What did Smith learn from her father?

Carpentry

When did Smith start taking college art classes?

1958

When did Smith complete her undergraduate degree?

1976

Where did Smith move to in 1976?

New Mexico

What kind of career did Smith begin in New Mexico?

Exhibition and curatorial career

When did Smith earn her MA and from which school?

1980 at the University of New Mexico

What was Smith best known for?

Large-scale artworks dealing with histories of Native American life and representation

What were some of Smith's most famous pieces?

The Red Mean: Self-Portrait (1992) and Trade: Gifts for Trading Land with White People (1992)

What does Smith's work reference?

Popular culture, art history, ecology, and American history

What did Smith say regarding her advocacy for Indigenous artists?

My life's work involves examining contemporary life in America and interpreting it through Native ideology

What did Smith achieve in 1992?

She curated her first major exhibition, which featured the work of 38 Native American artists and traveled to 12 locations

What was the name of the exhibition?

Submuloc Show-Columbus Wohs

What was the purpose of the exhibition?

It was a response to the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas from Indigenous viewpoints

What was Smith's most recent curatorial project?

The Land Carries our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans

Where and when did Smith curate The Land Carries our Ancestors?

At the National Gallery of Art in 2023-24

When did Smith pass away?

2025

What is State Names about?

The origin of place names in North America

What does the map in State Names show?

The US and parts of Canada and Mexico surrounded by an inky black ocean

Which states are labeled in State Names?

The states whose names come from Indigenous languages

What did Smith say about her father's life in a 2024 interview?

He attended a residential boarding school where he was beaten for speaking Salish

What did Smith say about the importance of language transmission?

Our language carried thousands of years of knowledge

What often appears in Smith's works?

Copies of the Char-Koosta News

What other work was State Names loosely resembled?

The brightly colored paintings of the US map by Jasper Johns

How did Johns influence Smith's working methods?

She was inspired by his use of simple and iconic forms underlaid with collage texts from newspapers and ads

How do Johns' and Smith's works differ?

Johns' touchstones are about instant recognizability as popular icons while Smiths painted maps are tied to Native American identity

How do the words in State Names appear?

They are large, legible, and written in a newspaper-like font

What does the paint in the piece look like?

The paint is dripping and layered

What does State Names cause the viewer to consider?

How and why those place names came to be

What does State Names ask the viewer to think about?

How Native words and places are all around us yet we often don't think about Native peoples in the contemporary world

What does State Names offer an alternative to?

The mathematical and scientific impulses of early modern European maps and nineteenth-century surveys

What does Smith convey regarding Indigenous practices?

Indigenous ways of knowing and naming places can't be bound by the arbitrary divisions of cartography

How are the borders between states drawn in State Names?

Runny and wavering

What is the example of official cartography included in the resource guide?

A survey map of central Washington from 1893

How is the map of Washington drawn?

It shows manmade divisions cutting across natural features of the landscape

What did Smith write about Native ways of knowing in 2018?

They reject the notion that humankind is in control of nature

What did Smith recall about her upbringing?

An embodied, sensory experience of place was central to her upbringing

What view of Native cultures did Smith express?

A long-term relation to the landscape that resisted certain forms of organization and control

What does State Names highlight?

The arbitrary nature of administrative divisions

What is an example of a border determined by natural features?

The part of the US-Mexico border marked by the Rio Grande

What is an example of an arbitrary border?

The intersection of the Four Corners states (CO, NM, AZ, UT)

How many states does the Navajo Nation span across?

3 of the Four Corners states

What is another name for the Navajo Nation?

Dinétah

What is notable about the Navajo Nation?

It is the largest reservation by land area int he US

What effect does the dripping paint have in State Names?

It blurs borderlines and obscures sharp divisions

Which two areas smoothly run into each other?

Southeastern Arkansas and northeastern Mississippi

What color is AR and MS?

Blue green

What are the yellow rivulets from Oklahoma to Texas a reminder of?

The Comanche empire that once dominated the area

What does State Names ask us to do with the recognizable US map?

Look again and re-orient ourselves