Introduction Essay

Ethan Boroughs

1/13/16

My name is Ethan Boroughs and I am a sophomore at UR this year. I am from Hanover County, Virginia, which is about 30 minutes outside of Richmond. Through my years, I have traveled fairly extensively across the United States and other parts of the world. Some of my travels took me out across the Western United States, on some of the same territory that was traversed by Lewis and Clark. As I learned more and more about the Lewis and Clark expedition, I became fascinated with how the two men made maps of the territory that they were exploring. I had no idea how the two were able to complete the expedition, much less how they had produced such fantastic maps with their lack of tools and technology. From that point onward I have been fascinated with mapmakers, their abilities, and how they were able to produce such accurate maps with so little technology. Since then, I have had an interest in maps, how they are made, and what exactly goes into making an accurate map.

Aside from studying maps and admiring them for what they are, I have had zero experience or exposure to geography, mapmaking, and how geographers perform their jobs. I took this class because it was about something I was interested in (maps) and how they are made from the perspective of a geographer. Even though I have very little knowledge about anything in this field and I’m sort of coming in blind, I would really enjoy being able to learn how maps have been made in the past, how that process is changed, and how we make maps in the modern era. I would also like to learn how the art of map making has evolved, since it seems like maps have transformed from being a picture that people use to find directions into an interactive field in which you can display other points of interest besides roads and pathways. Whether we focus on how to draw maps by hand or use the geographical software that modern mapmakers use is fine with me, I have equal interest in both fields. I am also considering geography as a minor since I am so interested in maps.

I think this semester will be very eye opening for me, and I hope to learn a lot about a field of study that I am very interested in, but know almost nothing about.