Page 15 - Windows Spring 2015

TCU Students Explore Abell
Map Colletion

In the Fall of 2014, History Professor Alex Hidalgo offered a history major seminar in Latin American history with the theme of
“Mapped Encounters in Latin America.” The purpose of the seminar was to teach the students “to craft a major research paper,”
focused on some aspect of the maps and mapping of Latin America.

Each student was to build his or her research project based primarily on maps in the George T. Abell Map Collection held by
TCU’s Special Collections. The students were to answer such questions as who produced the map and for what purpose? In what
socioeconomic and historical context was the map produced? Was the map accurate? How did the maps relate to the historical issues
of Latin America?

In addition to the final research paper, the students contributed to the building of an online exhibit of selected maps from the Abell
collection. The students also presented their findings at an informal symposium on December 4, 2015. The result of the students’ hard
work may be found at abellcollection.omeka.net.

The George T. Abell Map Collection was the gift of the Abell-Hanger Foundation and the estate of George T. Abell in 1984. The
collection contains more than 100 maps which range in date from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Notably, the collection also
contains a 1573 copy of Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrvm Orbis Terrarvm, considered by some as the first modern atlas of the world.

Selected for online exhibit: Amerucae Nova Tabula Selected for online exhibit: Mexico Regia

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