What is your first instinct upon seeing a blank space? To fill it in. From a young age, we learned to “fill in the blanks”, from coloring books to quizzes. We began to associate blanks with a negative connotation, without even considering whether they were truly absent of material in the first place. Blanks mean incompleteness, and incompleteness means failure. In the same vein, filled spaces — particularly those that were previously blank — are perceived as triumphs and achievements. As we grow up, the blanks transition to new Google Docs and vacant sketchbook pages, empty minds and absent zeros. And in our world of “more is better” and “time is money”, there is no opportunity to stop and appreciate the beauty of blanks. Blanks are part of our everyday lives, shaping the way we perceive the world, think, and act. In Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, Peter Turchi explores the role of blank spaces in mapmaking and writing. His ideas can be applied to the map, United States and Territories, from Trexler Library’s Ray R. Brennen Map Collection. Analysis of the spaces on this map, blank, crowded, and absent, reveals that it is a representation of man’s desire to fill in blank spaces on paper and conquer land on earth.
United States and Territories is a sprawling portrayal of nineteenth century America, a product of Manifest Destiny. The map, from the “New Topographical Atlas of the State of Pennsylvania; with Descriptions Historical, Scientific and Statistical”, was created by Henry Francis Walling in 1872. In order to understand the context and progress highlighted in the map, a trip back in time is in store. The earliest explorers chanced upon the eastern coast of the New World, hence most European colonization occurred there. From the boggy wetlands of Jamestown to the rickety cobblestone streets of Philadelphia, colonists established the first substantial land claims and hubs. This heavy initial settlement is clearly evidenced by the abundance of solid lanes, dashed lines, and dots (representing roads, railroads, and cities), as well as lack of blank space, in the eastern part of the continent. A westward roam of the eye reveals a travel through time and space. As great urban centers became overcrowded, cropland scarce, and immigrants overflowing, colonists sought to spread westward for more land. Throughout the 1800’s, America became fixated upon the idea of stretching from “sea to shining sea”. Coined Manifest Destiny, the concept reflected Americans’ beliefs in their God-given right to expand to the Pacific and claim the entire continent as America. The Oregon Trail, a treacherous route from Missouri to Oregon, provided a means of migration westward. As might be expected, but little acknowledged, conflicts occurred with Native Americans as white settlers encroached upon and stole their land. By the second half of the century, the advancement made in the name of Manifest Destiny was documented in United States and Territories. The left side of the map was partially filled in with lines, dots, and labels. Above Texas resided an area called Indian Territory, where Native American tribes were forced to relocate to as the end destination of the Trail of Tears. The particularly striking part of the map is the stark contrast between the density of symbols in the eastern and western portions of the country.
This contrast emphasizes the significance of space in United States and Territories and the nation it depicts, for they are the results of the instinctual human desire to fill blank spaces. To best understand how a map was made, one must first explore why. Considering history, the west and midwest would originally have been portrayed as a blank canvas. In the words of Turchi, “to be confronted with nothing in a carefully prepared context makes us newly aware of our assumptions and expectations” (51). What, then, were the assumptions and expectations of Americans given a carefully prepared empty map? The assumption that the land was unoccupied to begin with, and the expectation that providence was on their side. Such thinking screams of arrogance and privilege, and yet it was these very values that drove Manifest Destiny, an idea poised as nationalism masquerading as thinly veiled superiority. Settlers allowed themselves to craft a narrative and mindset in which they were intrepid and heroic, pioneers that set out to make their own fortunes and build their own place in the New World. In fact, Manifest Destiny was little more than an excuse used to justify man’s natural reaction to blank spaces: an irresistible beckoning to our basest desire to claim and our unquenchable thirst for more.
But all this begs the question: are blank spaces even truly blank, or do we choose to see them that way? Turchi states that “we can inspect the white for evidence of blemish or texture or we might imagine defacing it, or filling it in, and in that act of imagining see it as tabula rasa, the blank slate of opportunity” (50). Essentially, we ponder what already exists, or we subject it to our own desires. Either way, this interpretation implies that there is actually no such thing as blank spaces, only how we as humans choose to manipulate the existing. Manipulation suggests a lack of respect and appreciation for the original and natural, and an inclination towards the hunger for power as a creator and maker. After all, a blank slate means a chance to start over, and opportunity equals a chance for success. The temptation is too great for the vices of man, and so we almost always choose to see blank spaces as tabula rasa, as exemplified by two main ways in United States and Territories. Firstly, instead of following the natural features of the landscape, boxy borders were artificially established for western states in order to, frankly, make our lives easier. It is interesting to note that borders are not naturally meaningful phenomena, but only exist as a result of the will of humans. Secondly, Native Americans were the true first settlers of America, yet European settlers disregarded their presence and demeaned their claim to the land. The fact that belief in Manifest Destiny and in North America as a blank slate existed when Native Americans and their ancestors had lived on the land for millenia attests to humans’ greed.
United States and Territories is an excellent study of blank spaces and what they reveal about the nature of mankind. Supported by the ideas of Peter Turchi in Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, we can see the entitlement of man in the Manifest Destiny that led to the production of this map. The European settlers of then chose to see a blank slate of opportunity where there existed entire tribes, so the maps of today show an America with little to no Native American populations, and a western coast just as populated as the eastern coast. These filled spaces were built on the backs of thievery and conflict. A simple history lesson teaches us that “blank” spaces are best left blank, but as we know, human nature is difficult to change.
Works Referenced
Turchi, Peter. Maps of the Imagination: the Writer As Cartographer. Trinity University Press, 2007. Walling, Henry Francis. United States and Territories. Map. Edition. Philadelphia: Stedman, Brown & Lyon, 1872.
