Parts but Little Known

 

On Exhibit

fall 2017 through spring 2018

At the Kelly Adirondack Center

The Adirondack region is no longer uninhabited, as The London Magazine once claimed, but anyone who has hiked there knows that parts are still impassable. The maps in this exhibit graphically demonstrated the increase in knowledge about the region and what was important to European military strategists, entrepreneurs, and tourists over the past 450 years. The earliest maps, which date from 1556 to 1794 and were from a private collection, reveal that the area was unmapped for many years even as the surrounding areas and much of the eastern United States were thoroughly understood and settled. The period after the American Revolution is represented by maps showing Colvin’s triangulation process, early railroads, Seneca Ray Stoddard’s exquisite Adirondack maps, canoe routes, hiking, ski and snowmobile trails, and the evolution of the “Blue Line,” including the current Adirondack Park Agency mapping process. This exhibit showcased the wide variety of regional maps in the Adirondack Research Library.