Bermuda Maps
Author: Jonathan Land Evans
Bermuda may be a tiny island in the mid-Atlantic, but a large body of maps has told its complex and fascinating story over the centuries. Depictions range from vague and dangerous-looking representations on early hand-drawn charts to the golden age of decorative printed maps in the 1600s, the elegance of the Georgian era and the substantial Victorian period, into a revival of decorative maps of holiday-resort Bermuda in the 1930s and 1940s.
Bermuda Maps by Bermudian historian and writer Jonathan Land Evans, edited and produced by Brimstone Media, is the culmination of a lifetime collecting and studying these depictions. Wide-ranging and combining scholarship with connoisseurship, it features hundreds of rare images of old and new maps, with analysis of their content, presentation and context. Of particular interest is how depictions of Bermuda changed with the centuries and with the island’s importance: first as a remote navigational location, through its emergence as a thriving British colony to vital importance as a naval defence hub for the Americas. Many Bermuda maps were kept under strict secrecy in such times. In sharp contrast, whimsical Bermuda maps became prevalent as the age of tourism overtook the island’s fortunes.
Featured maps come from institutions worldwide, as well as many Bermuda individuals and collections, including maps from the Nancy and Brian Duperreault Collection and the National Museum.
Jonathan Land Evans is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and the School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, and of University College London and the College of Law, London. His self-published books include The Encyclopedia of Bermuda Artists and a series of books on Bermuda’s modern history. A three-volume illustrated history, Bermuda in Painted Representation, is forthcoming.
Bermuda Maps is available from local bookstores or direct from the National Museum at info@nmb.bm/441-234-1333.
