How can historical maps help us understand changes in landscape and land use patterns on PEI?
Historical maps are becoming increasingly more available for a range of historical research, from academic classroom contexts to individuals tracing family and community histories. The IslandImagined project at the University of Prince Edward Island Robertson Library is systematically digitizing a body of historical maps.
Although historical maps have been a primary point of reference in genealogy (Coles), historians have only recently begun to use the documents extensively. Their reluctance to do so was probably based on limited access to fragile and oversize collections, but the increasing accessibility of digitized map collections and even the manipulation of historical maps in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are opening the world of maps to a wide range of learners. Some excellent historical geography in the form of the Historical Atlas of Canada and other volumes has recently demonstrated the power of using maps both to read and to teach history, and the Island Imagined and many other web based collections are adding a digital dimension to this research. The result is what some have called the “spatial turn” in historical, genealogical, and social science research (Knowles, 2002, 2008). Comparing these documents across time adds a spatial component to temporal questions. Researchers in fields as diverse as history, ecology, genealogy, and land use planning who ask the questions “when, and why then” can now more easily use historical maps and ask “where, and why there?”
The moment a researcher begins to look for an ancestor on PEI or to identify land use patterns in the British period, he or she is confronted with the unique structure of the Island’s property system. The system was established after the expulsion of the Acadians and in many ways it has shaped the Island’s physical and social landscape. In order to facilitate the orderly British settlement of what became Prince Edward Island the colony was surveyed by Samuel Holland in the winter of 1764-1765. Lots of approximately 20,000 acres each were delimited as the main units of settlement in PEI, much like the seignurie in Quebec and the township in other parts of British North America. The main difference for PEI was that these lots were to be granted to absentee landlords and other large proprietors with the expectation that the owners would encourage immigration and sedentary occupation of the land. The relationship between the new residents and their landlords has simply been called the “land question,” and it has left an indelible impression on Island history (Coles; Hatvany).
However, focusing on the relationship between Islanders and their landlords has often clouded our understanding of the relationship between Islanders and the land. Historical maps are one way that researchers can move beyond the land question and begin to ask different questions about environmental history, subsistence, and exchange. We can ask questions like how was the Island landscape imagined in maps and map illustrations, and how did these perceptions change over time? What was the pattern of human activity in the environment, and how did the Island?s natural resources sustain human and non-human life in the Province? Did any of this human activity become unsustainable, and, if so, when? The history of landscape and land use change should also inform planners and policy makers, and as one scientific journal has put it: “Historical maps and literature represent a rich data source and a valuable tool in overcoming the short-term nature of many ecological studies” (Bromberg and Bertness, 829).
Many historical maps systematically recorded the kind of topographical and land use features that are critical for an understanding of human activity and environmental change. These features can be compared with more recent maps, inventories, and qualitative descriptions in order to identify patterns of continuity and change in the Island landscape and the communities that helped shape it.