19th Century Map of U.S.
Mary van Schaack is one of few well known early women cartographers of the 19th century. She created a pen-and-ink and watercolor map of the U.S. and part of Louisiana in 1830. This map not only signifies a small step forward for women cartographer recognition and opportunity, but also demonstrates practices that influence today's map designs. The way that her map uses bold strokes along borders along with different colors to separate states in a legible way is still used in maps today that use bold strokes and contrasting colors to separate parts of the image. Her map also includes thin stroked lines to represent rivers. Schaack utilizes the line strokes as a means of representing various cartographic visual aspects of the U.S. map, which is a common practice that has been developed and used in modern maps as well.
