Maps as objects of material culture.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a tune of great change in both the old world and the new. Tremendous advances were being made in the exploration and documentation of the known world. The extensive trade in natural resources, furs, tobacco, and slaves created excess wealth in England and western Europe, which, in turn, afforded more time for academic pursuits. Educated men became consumed with gathering information about the world around them. They amassed important libraries that reflected their worldly interests and decorated their houses with objects indicative of their scholarly pursuits. Maps, charts, and globes became important symbols for the enlightened gentleman.

Certain aristocratic groups within the colonies began to regard themselves as the cultural equals of the English gentry. The high regard in which books were held is exemplified by John Custis (1678-11749) of Virginia, whose library was catalogued at his death. One of his hooks was an atlas composed of maps he had selected, today called a composite atlas. On the spine of this volume is "English Atlas" in gold letters. By the time the library was inventoried, Custis's atlas was fifty-one years old and many maps were outdated, yet the book was the second item listed in the inventory. Only the highly regarded two-volume Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1731-1743) by Mark Catesby (1683-1749) precedes it. Equally telling was the staggering price Custis paid for the atlas in 1698--[pound]6.12. [1] Comparing the value of the atlas with household items listed in the inventories of his contemporaries places the cost in perspective. The most expensive item in the 1700 inventory of John Fern e (d. 1700) of Middlesex County Virginia, taken two years after Custis purchased his atlas, was "I feather bedd rugg 1 pr. blanketts bolster pillows curtaines vallance/head cloth tester and bedstead 7.0.0." [2] Ferne's bed and hangings were worth virtually the same sum that Custis paid for his atlas.

When the estate of Ralph Wormeley (1650-1701), also of Middlesex County, was inventoried in 1701, the most expensive items were once again beds and bed hangings. Wormeley owned three--one set valued at six pounds and the others at seven pounds each. The same year, the York County, Virginia, inventory of James Whaley (1652-1701) listed a bedstead, the most

In The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) described the subject matter appropriate for walls of libraries: "Such prints as are hung in the walls ought to be memorials of learning, and portraits of men of science and erudition." [6] The library itself was a masculine space, a sanctum where gentlemen withdrew to indulge in their scholarly pursuits.

Although William Byrd II's son and father also collected books, he purchased the majority of the collection. When the library was inventoried by the bookbinder and printer John Stretch (d. 1764) after 1751, it comprised 2,345 volumes. By 1777, when the library was put on the market, 4,000 volumes were advertised in the Williamsburg Virginia Gazette. [7] Of the twenty-three bookcases in the library, three and a half contained Byrd's collections of "History, Voyages, Travels, &c." Also in this section were books on navigation, geography, trade, and commerce. Among the titles on the book spines from "Case B. Fourth shelf. Folio" were "Two large Books of Maps." It is possible that these two untitled volumes were loose sheet maps bound together; like Custis's "English Atlas." Other libraries of comparable size or importance to the Byrds' that included geographical topics were those of Cotton Mather, James Logan, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson.

Like portraits, maps provided suitable subject matter for the walls of a gentleman's study or library (see P1. II), a practice in keeping with European tradition as illustrated in numerous Dutch genre paintings of the seventeenth century, most notably those of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). In his will, William Fitzhugh (1651-1701) of Virginia wrote, "I Give my son costly item, at eight pounds. Second most expensive was "To 14 New Chaires 4.4.00." [3]

Custis's brother-in-law William Byrd II of Westover plantation in Virginia (see p. 197, P1. II) constructed a separate library building in which he pondered his books and paintings (see P1. III). [4] Byrd wrote to his friend John Perceval (1683-1748), earl of Egmont, in 1736 that he had