From the far South: the utmost ends of the Earth in the Argentinean national cartography

CARLA LOIS

Copenhagen

Conferencia; 23rd International Conference on the History of Cartography; 2009

Working Group on the History of Cartography - Royal Danish Library

The southern limits of the world have always attracted cartographical myths. Unusual images and toponyms, and indeed imaginary coastlines, have been common in maps of the far south, and persist up to today. Some of these elements were selected, incorporated into and even re-interpreted in the creation of the official national maps of Argentina during the second half of the 19th century. Since the Cabo de Hornos (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) is considered the southernmost point of inhabited continental lands, it became and has remained a focal point in discussions of Argentinean national cartography, and in analyzing maps of the area, we find a peculiar mixture of information about early European discoveries, native peoples, anti-Chilean claims and national geographical visions. Under these circumstances, the images of the southernmost inhabited land of the world took a particular shape in Argentinean maps. The aim in this paper is to analyze some images of “the utmost ends of the Earth” in Argentinean national cartography. I begin with an overview of some typical elements in early modern maps (16th Century) of Tierra del Fuego. Then I make a comparative study of three nineteenth-century foreign maps which have a key place in Argentinean imaginative geography and national narratives. Finally, I examine the nationalistic re-interpretation of Tierra del Fuego in Argentinean maps, and the representation of the utmost ends of the Earth (including some curious relocations). In addition, this imagery of Tierra del Fuego will be contrasted with other contemporary images of it.