Nathan Braccio: The Power of Mapmaking in 17th-Century New England
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-11-2025
Abstract
For the English and Algonquian inhabitants of 17th-century New England, paper maps were a rare and powerful tool. Mapmakers created them to establish borders, facilitate cross-cultural communication, and record spatial information. But maps were also used to misinform, steal land, and erase Indigenous cultural presence. In this talk, Nathan Braccio, Assistant Professor of History at Clark University, will explore how both Algonquian-speaking communities and English colonists made maps as tools in a struggle for cultural and physical control of the Northeast. In doing so, he will investigate how maps, including those that we interact with in the present day, promote particular value-laden ways of understanding the world.
This event continues the Roots of Everything, a lecture series sponsored by Early Modernists Unite (EMU)—a faculty collaborative bringing together scholars of medieval and early modern Europe and America—in conjunction with the Alice Coonley Higgins Institute for Arts and Humanities. The series highlights various aspects of modern existence originating in the early modern world by connecting past and present knowledge.
With thanks to the Department of History at Clark University for its support.
Recommended Citation
Clark University, "Nathan Braccio: The Power of Mapmaking in 17th-Century New England" (2025). Clark University Video Archive. 355.
https://commons.clarku.edu/videoarchive/355
