Anthony Mullan: “How Tourist, Business, and Colonization Maps Shaped North American Views of Cuba, 1898-1913"

Sponsored in partnership with the Boston, California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies

Location: Zoom

Time:  7:00 pm ET/6:00 pm CT/5:00 pm MT/4:00 pm PT

Title: How Tourist, Business, and Colonization Maps Shaped North American Views of Cuba, 1898-1913

Speaker:  Anthony Mullan, Library of Congress (retired), Washington, D.C.

This presentation surveys a selection of maps associated with North American investment, colonization, and tourism in Cuba during the first 15 years following the Spanish American War. During this period, the United States intermittently occupied and contemplated annexing the country.  Various railroad, steamship, and land companies, as well as journals such as the Cuba Review, began to publish maps of Cuba, which emphasized how seamless and effortless travel could be to Havana and beyond. This presentation shows how these maps helped to make certain towns and scenic areas tangible to the American traveling public. Maps were often part of promotional literature leading tourists, colonists, and investors to have certain expectations of a new Cuba in which they could experience a healthy, safe, and modern land of abundance, but whose long history with Spain and multi-culturalism were either minimized or erased.

RSVP to John Docktor at washmap@gmail.com to receive the Zoom meeting ID and passcode.