While MESDA founder Frank Horton acknowledged that prints and maps were used to adorn the walls of Southern houses, he also recognized that the majority were not produced in the colonial South but rather were published in England and Europe and imported to America. Therefore Horton chose not to furnish the rooms with generic English prints known to have been sent to America, but rather to collect only period graphics that contained subject matter pertaining to the South. Although maps and prints represent a very small portion of the collections at MESDA, they provide tremendous insights into a myriad of social, political, and economic forces that shaped Southern culture.

The scientific and authoritative nature of maps made them useful devices for governmental officials and colonial expansionists to claim ownership of land and exert power and authority over competing nationalities. Similarly, prints – from portraits to views – documented English perceptions of America and served as vehicles to convey a host of attitudes and values.

Adapted from “Useful Devices: The Prints and Maps at MESDA” in The Magazine Antiques (1/2007) article by Margaret Beck Pritchard, Curator of Prints, Maps, and Wallpaper, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.