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American Women: Resources from the Geography and Map Collections

Selected Collections

Peter Foster. Diagram of the south part of Shaker Village, Canterbury, NH.. 1849. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Although certain collections contain richer resources to study American women's history, almost any kind of cartographic material may provide data that can be used for a particular project. The groups of materials listed here are among the most useful to researchers both in terms of the quality and quantity of information that they contain about American women.

Peter Foster, author of the beautifully colored map of part of the Shaker Village of Canterbury, New Hampshire, described his method:

“The artist who drew this diagram, not being acquainted with any rules of drawing, hopes it will be sufficient apology for the imperfections which may be found. It is not drawed [sic] from any measurement of scale, but the buildings are placed nearly in their natural situation.”

Similar drawings exist for Shaker communities in Maine and other parts of the country.

See Robert P. Emlen, Shaker Village Views: Illustrated Maps and Landscape Drawings by Shaker Artists of the Nineteenth Century (catalog record).