Pearl Lochs Map

Pearl Lochs Map

Hawaii
maps
U.S.

The map displays the area that would come to be known as Pearl Harbour. It shows that mapmakers may have used local knowledge (in this case place names) to effectively map out the territories which they were interested in exploiting. This is also connected to the notion of changing place names in order to make a claim on a region. The caption of the map is in English, explaining that it was made ‘on behalf of the United States Government’, but the names on the map are in Hawaiian. The key in the left-hand corner has symbols for agricultural land and resources, and navigational information. These kinds of details would have been a useful tool when the U.S. government was trying to decide on land use. Mapping regions was also a method by which the US could affirm its ownership and control over Hawaii. Pearl Harbour was first utilised by the US during the 1880s for mining exportation and importation of supplies.

C. J. Lyons and J. Lidgate

Library of Congress

www.loc.gov/resource/g4382p.ct003114/

1873

Hannah Oliver

Library of Congress

English
Hawaiian

Visual - map

19th century Hawai'i