Seeing What Isn't There

I love maps, and have a modest collection of them. So I was interested to come across this article about an exhibition of vintage maps of Manchester at the University of Manchester. The article (which is to say, the press release) focuses on the way that 19th century maps of the city presage contemporary concerns -- commuting time, drinking, and attempts to solve social problems with wrecking balls.

I think this is an example of seeing the past through our contemporary lens. If you look at a collection of old maps, you're likely to see the continuities and think they're important. "Look, the pubs back then were all in the same places!" Not surprising, really -- even in the United States it's not uncommon for a successful business to stay in the same location for a century or more. The legendary McSorley's in New York has been open since the 1850s.

A focus on what hasn't changed misses the important stuff that has. A map like, oh, the plot of cholera deaths in London doesn't speak much to our era because we don't have deadly urban epidemics any more. (Swine flu? Don't talk to me about swine flu. So far 167 people have died worldwide of the current outbreak. That's about the average number of deaths from yellow fever per year in the city of New Orleans before the Civil War. Compared to our ancestors, we're disease-free, thanks to vaccination, pesticides, and clean water.) Yet of course it was that cholera map which helped create our modern healthier cities.

Comments

[Brian Rogers]

But it has Swines! and the Flu!

I admit that there will likely be more Swine Flue deaths when we get to the actual Flue season, but thanks to the solutions you mentioned above the odds of it being another Spanish Flu outbreak are awfully small.