Scholar sees maps as a route to the past

For the past three decades, Philip Burden has traveled around the globe, spending countless hours looking at maps.

No, he wasn't lost.

The British cartographic expert was buying and selling antique maps and researching rare maps in university libraries, private collections and other obscure locations. The information and illustrations he gathered were compiled into two internationally respected reference books, "The Mapping of North America I and II."

As part of a book tour, Burden is making a rare visit to the United States, presenting a free lecture on "The Men Behind the Maps" on Saturday at Meredith College. The event is sponsored by the William P. Cumming Map Society and Gallery C in Raleigh, which offers an array of art, including historical maps of North Carolina, the Southeast and the Americas.

Antique maps, which are "highly collectible," provide "much more than just geographic information," says Adam Cave, director of Gallery C. They teach society about subjects such as art, politics and various cultures.

Gallery C, for example, has a collection of maps made during the Civil War that show changes in the size of various counties of North Carolina, along with troop movements of the Union and Confederate armies.

"Looking at maps, we step back in time and see the world as it was seen and understood then, unedited by modern historians," Cave says. "I am always amazed at seeing towns that were important enough 200 years ago to be on a map, and today we hardly know they existed ... or the way that one piece of geography like the Outer Banks is so accurately documented, while points farther inland are so much harder to understand."

Some of the maps Burden discovered on his journey were rare resources that were not for sale. Others came with a hefty price tag. Over the years, he has purchased hundreds of maps and other rare artwork for his company, Clive A. Burden Ltd. (www.caburden.com), which was founded in 1966 by his father, the late Clive A. Burden.

Although the company sells an array of vintage decorative artwork, it's the cartographic treasures that put Clive A. Burden Ltd. on the map. Although maps created centuries ago were once used as tools for exploration, they have evolved into historical archives that are priceless in many ways.

"As for politics, maps are critical to it," Burden said this week, while taking a break during a New York book fair. "Without them, nations cannot draw or define borders. In fact, several printed maps exist which have been used in negotiations of treaties."

The style of art in maps has evolved over the years, giving a sense of the eras in which they were created.

"Early engraving developed a heavier, more florid style through the early 1600s when styles turned simpler and lighter on the eye," Burden says. "They were still decorated with cartouches and strange mythical creatures. The 18th century produced maps with baroque cartouches. The 19th century saw science overtaking decoration, and the maps became more functional."

Burden's books contain many previously unrecorded maps, arranged chronologically and accompanied by an abundance of other information. The first volume covers the history of American mapmaking through 1670, and the second volume spans to 1700, considered a critical time in cartographic history.

"The exploration of much of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes in the years from 1671 to 1700 resulted in some very important maps," Burden says.

"Similarly, the ever westward push from the Atlantic coastline into the interior also produced great cartography. North Carolina was particularly featured in this regard with the voyages of John Lederer in particular in 1670."

During his research, Burden has stumbled upon some true treasure maps.

"I once found in Paris a copy of the most important map of Texas by the father of Texas, Stephen F. Austin," he says. "It also turned out to be the important first state map. This was something I could buy, but some of my finds have come out of research for the book. Last year I was at Magdalene College, Cambridge in England, looking through the library of Samuel Pepys, the diarist, when I found an unrecorded ... chart of the Atlantic Ocean from around 1680."

Although Americans who watch programs such PBS's "Antiques Roadshow" might dream about discovering a valuable map at a yard sale, Burden said, the chances of that happening are almost as rare as the maps.

"Most of my great finds for the research of my book have occurred in the great institutions of the world, such as the British Library and the Library of Congress," he says.

"What I have always said is that it is not finding the item that is important, it is putting someone in front of it who knows what he is looking at."