Collection: Maps

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums & Gardens is home to one of the most important collections of southern of maps.  On the surface maps appear scientific and authoritative, useful devices for governmental officials and colonial expansionists to claim ownership of land and exert power and authority over competing nationalities.  Below the surface, however, maps often provide tremendous insights into a myriad of social, political, and economic forces that shaped Southern culture.