Nathan Probasco, assistant professor of European and world history at Briar Cliff University, will present “The Maps of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh and the Origins of Anglo-America, 1580-1585” at 2 p.m. Nov. 7 in Hardin Hall, Room 228. The seminar is free and open to the public.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his better-known half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh led the first English voyages attempting to colonize the Americas. Although neither established a lasting settlement, both men demonstrated the importance of mapping their newly acquired territories, which set a precedent for subsequent colonizing voyages.
Gilbert recruited specialists, like John Dee and Richard Hakluyt, who expended considerable resources while conducting research for their maps. Raleigh sent John White to survey the eastern coast of North America. His maps display the skill of sixteenth century cartographers.
Examining these maps clarifies how England’s first expansionists used cartography to promote their expeditions, to guide them to their destinations and to assert their control over the territory. They proved that maps served a number of vital functions in preparing and executing colonizing expeditions.
Probasco’s research has appeared in several peer reviewed journals, including Renaissance Quarterly, The Journal of Military History and Literature Compass. He has held fellowships at the John Carter Brown Library and the Huntington Library, and he has presented at academic conferences in the United States and England.
For more information on the event, go to http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historydiss/56/.
For a calendar of upcoming events, go to http://events.unl.edu/asc/2014/11/07/92480/.
