library on his desk. now washington has a suggested had a deep and abiding connection to the land and the maps were always central to his work first as a surveyor when he was 16 matting, measuring the frontier, then of course as a military man during the french and indian war and there he had brought his surveying skills to bear again and always had his eye out as a speculator for the good pieces of land even as he was on the military campaign and then retiring early to become a gentleman farmer at the plantation in mt. vernon and of course deep connection to the quality of the soil, the rotation of crops. it's fascinating to read his intimate study of these things. ..

>> who in the book less than hastings we have been able to do with the art director and the designer creating beautiful objects we can show close up some of the maps. even adds her 10 by 13 format splashed over two pages it is hard to see the details. there's a lot of detail looking where washington was born and grew up and of

course, this is the country he returned to after his great victory at yorktown and comes full circle from the manuscript of 17,511th edition 1753. right at the beginning of washington's military career. at this moment where joshua fry who drew the map is a riding out to meet washington on the frontier. so there is a collision of maps and life in. but here is a detailed view that gives a view of one of the most important forces in the life of the washington that is called the northern neck proprietary. a piece of land granted by the king to a single man lowered fairfax more than 5 million acres about the

size of massachusetts taking up most of northern virginia. what that meant for someone like george washington, this piece of land between the potomac and rappahannock river starts off but then expands as we follow the course of the river to its source in the mountains and comes down along the lines with the lowered fairfax boundary and wrapping around back to the rappahannock it became an obstacle and an opportunity for young washington because his father died when he was 11 and his half brother lawrence stood to inherit the wind and share of the property and just like washington was destined to

seek his fortune in the west. so he was a great connection and gave him his first job when he was a survey year and lawrence merited to the fairfax family and showing the state that was right across the creek of melbourne and so washington was taken they're very often and became a part of the social circle that became a advancement of his jobs and also and then surveying on long person-- parcels but then no striking out on his own looking to get beyond bill will individual p xstrata one by one but you can see the allegheny's

create a serious boundary that washington was struggling for the rest of his life to create connections between the ohio country and the great lakes to bring the wealthy and the trade to the eastern seaboard from atlantic and europe so the opportunity to go beyond the mountains. as they get into washington's early military career 1754, we see her is surveying skills come into play. here is a map he drew on his first military assignment ever on behalf of the virginia governor to challenge the french on the ohio valley. pa., pittsburgh and you can see how he drew some of

potomac on the allegheny mountains and went through the snow and made his way up to the southern shore of lake erie from the wonderful trying and even by modern standards it turns out to be very accurate so his training paid off and it shows washington's initiative there is nothing in the military commission that said bring back of map only to deliver the ultimatum but washington seems temperamental physically suited to life on the frontier and going out and making maps of the land so the sandman comes back 21 years old and as a successful report and a map.

that was the way of thinking about the world and the way to represented a and he knew it was a currency that maps or knowledge and knowledge was power this was power politics on the front here. that map was included by the governor in a packet sent to london and this is the beginning of washington's fame up and down the seaboard in america and published in europe as well. the diaries show the tenacious young man braving the elements and be a patriot at -- at the same time. a couple years later, 1755 louis ovens publishes one important map of the middle british colony is a document that becomes a major reference tool for washington for much of his life into the 17 etfs and

'90s. many things you can point* to in this map and i will pick one that it gives a lot of information about the indian nation that washington had to negotiate with during his time of frontier. for example, from the mohawk river down to lake erie, we see the territory of the iroquois confederacy that played such a powerful role b.a.t between the british and french empires on the empire of its own in north america. but the territories the seneca, a cayuga, mapped out clearly. this was a crash course for washington in a complex alliance shifting and bewildering relationships he would have to contend with as he would pull the indians

away from the bond into the french. here is a close-up of the same map which gives us the same view and essentially the same access with the forex of the ohio river and here you see the french ford has been established later to be destroyed by the british. and again, it gives a sense of a published map contrast to washington's manuscript of a copper plate map. one of the great maps of the 18th century. another important mission washington went on was the

ill-fated campaign of 1755. i want to show you using a map of pennsylvania that goes through 1770. washington owned the map and i think it is a great tool for looking at the details of that campaign which played a big role and washington's life. if we go down to the lower left corner of the map we can start to trace some of the movement of the column as it left and settled into the frontier. packing its own road is through the wilderness crossing into moving up toward fort pitt and one of the interesting details you can see is the expedition across the river twice

avoiding these two hills where they thought they may be ambushed crossed the river and crossed again ght before they collided with the french indian colony that tore them to strip -- shreds. one of the most daring passages from washington's diaries is that night after the battle in which his commander was mortally wounded and washington, despite suffering from weakness and dysentery and fever charge around the globe battlefield taking his bullets through his hat to went unscathed and was able to get him across the second of the lowered in the river to get some distance from the indians and sporadic assigning washington to go back to get help from the column in the rear and we can see what washington had to do to get from up here

and retrace their steps through the dark wilderness at night and get down here to the dunbar camp where the second, was bringing up the rear with the supplies. washington was trying to make that horseback ride is still suffering from dysentery and no light and his guides are groping on the ground for the past and a the drones -- grows of the wounded are coming out of the trees on both sides of the past literally out of dante's inferno and washington persevered and made it back and brought help and ultimately buried of sporadic in the road and had is the way again this run over the grave and so the enemy would not find it and tear it apart.

also the final vote on that campaign, washington was on the staff in the first place was disgruntled with the treatment of american provincial officers in the british command structure because they could be out ranked by any british commander even though he was a colonel and so he said i will volunteer. i will not take your money. he drew a map, folded it up and put it in a letter and ingratiated himself and got a job on the staff. she thought and thought for himself through maps. [laughter] washington retired 1758 from active military duty and went to mount vernon to establish himself which he had inherited after lawrence's premature death. of course, he got married to

martha and was elected to the virginia house and settled down to a civilian life. and aspired to accumulate all the trappings of a first grandñ of virginia gentleman. in the process, of course, he became very unhappy as all americans did with the system the colonies were trapped. constantly in debt acquiring refinery from england although the tobacco prices were on the slide and washington was reluctant revolutionary but once he joined the continental movement, he never looked back even when the virginia governor threatened to invalidate all claims to the western land that he acquired as bounty for his military service along with the southern veterans. he hoped he could try washington away from the

movement with these threats and it did not work. washington attended as a delegate to the continental congress of course. july of 1775 as commander in chief of the continental army was on his way to be seized the british and here is a map and washington's collection. a beautiful map that use is not only cartography but wonderful drawings to dramatize the opening phases of the revolutionary war. here we can see after lexington concord april of 75, the battle of bunker hill, the information and

that was 217 and in a column drawn very beautifully and the new can see they come down from new hampshire converging in the great citizen soldiers and here it is one detail with the virginia horse so here is the enchanting map. washington had to size up the situation in. said day map of boston harbor gives tremendous the tel and perhaps look at the siege of boston was a static

affair that washington was in camped in cambridge and america is pinched off the knack at roxbury and eight at the neck here but if you have washington's maps in hand when i read his papers, other details emerged that give a sense of playing out the drama on a larger canvas. for one thing, he was sending his fledgling navy all the way up into canada and of the map of the st. lawrence to blockade lowered to intercept the ships to resupply the besieged general army and washington was using a fleet of whaleboat's from boston

harbor and sending them to burn the white house the entrance to the harbor. looking for ways to disrupt the british stealing sheep burning k2 -- to start them and then they could escape on to the shoals to get away from the deep british ships. so with map in hand we can see washington creatively using the typography to his advantage and of course, ultimately dorchester heights is the key to ending the siege placing the guns from ticonderoga here on this commanding here that would render it untenable. >> spontaneously using

maps, his own drawing of the area in case anybody would be confused and coming he writes watcher. [laughter] he makes of grid for cambridge and folded up and put to into a letter saying here it is the dilemma we have the british in the center able to move in any direction. we have to surround them and be ready to jump to cover every point* of the circle. a man who is really thinking on paper. one of the expeditions that washington launched was benedict arnold launch with 1,000 troops and the wonderful thing about steadying washington through his maps we can see events

that meant a great deal but even in places where he never set foot personally. the whole canadian campaign which was launched initially by congress from ticonderoga , then supplemented by washington, this occupied a great deal of washington energy and passion and you can read the letters to see how concerned he was as the welfare of the men into the canadian winter and the anxiety and tension he paid getting letters and news and this is great irony we've agreed with the perspective of history the ultimate fate and here is washington clearly seeing a younger alter ego seeing him like the braddock expedition with

the impulse of march to strike at the enemy first and arnold really is a phenomenal soldier and does not stop and gets knocked down and his men are starved and a ragged but come up the river and managed to get across under the nose of the british ships. this map which i tracked as carefully as i could which maps washington was buying i could pinpoint very carefully what maps he would be looking at and even though a map from 1759, this would have been the most current intelligence and detailed map to follow even though it depicts a battle

from 1759 and that was between the french who took it from them but now arnold tried to dislodge them and we can see how he would follow every step and follow the same strategy moving his men to the same landing place you can see the path going up the palisade, the same the colonel had used to bring his men up to the heights of abraham but unfortunately he made it appear but could not only were the british out the french had come out and that was the mistake. the canadian campaign collapsed and american forces fell back to ticonderoga and of course, october 76, arnold

sought to the famous battle and staved off a british penetration into the new york state for a traditional year and saved it the american cause. the campaign come on its face was a disaster and served a purpose which is another aspect of washington's character, his ability to look for the benefits and the situation a matter how gloomy lowered grim things seemed and he was able to find a the positive side to move forward. of course, the british we're stopped at the northern border and by the weather and to wait for the campaign season but ultimately costs the goal via lake champlain and the hudson and to take

the hudson to use it as a divider to break the colony's and icily new england over here and from new york and the southern colonies to the south and west. this is a map from 1775 that washington around the chief british engineer. a lot of these maps were printed in london including the map of boston harbor. how did washington get a hold of the maps in the middle of the war? it had every british done installation marked out and as it turned out the british map publishers did not see their trade with the french even though countries are

act or it is pretty well documented these other french sources for american commanders. here is a great military map the you can see focuses on the typography and this is a great map for washington because these are the areas where washington will spend most of his time during the revolution. here you can see the great natural fortress where the river cut say zigzag through the rock also for the conquest of iraq for and central new jersey, morristown, this is where washington will in camp and particularly after

the british capture, and the occupation for the next seven years washington will play a psychological war of keeping pressure to use the natural elevations and keep the british from throwing them off at yorktown and saratoga as a great turning point* where they did not move their troops out of new york to help the commanders in the field. just another shot of the wonderful detail you can find on these maps. >> another important to theater was the war of the south where washington could not go during the war but went to visit the battlefields where he was

conducting operations by studying maps. just to give you the example, the famous campaign washington followed as close as she could with letters taking weeks and months to be exchanged but talk and clearly follow on the map which dated from the 1756 but still remained the authoritative and detailed map of the region and just a couple of things about the map, it shows the various layers of sediment and the topography of the seaboard and the tidewater area and the fall lines of the zero

rivers and the mountainous3h area and that appellations here. of course, but the party is tremendously important because different groups depending on where they live had different levels of loyalty or allegiance to the crown and they're trying to look at the depth as they try to win allies to go between loyalist and the whigs. fists about one detailed shot from the right that a couple of campaigns in 1776 the british tried to take it in the run-up in the battle of new york and washington gets news of the british defeat and they were repulsed and the fleet came in through the channel mix

to sullivan island and they had day palmetto log to grant a ground and were sitting ducks and to read washington's letters, and the ugly you see coming from the page as the victory and polls is tremendous and equally emotional was the sad loss to the british and the 1780 when secretary clinton came down and not only captured the harbor but cut off the neck of the peninsula of that capture the city. and washington follows that with equal intensity. >> coming to the winding down of the revolutionary

war and 1783, i show you hear the macquarie map which shows and the united states of the definitive treaty of peace. and this is a map which probably for the first time shows the united states has a single political entity with no internal divisions and that was the site dear to washington's eyes when he looks at the map with a phenomenon he would fight for to establish the constitution to hold the country together. and what it is fascinating is to watch the evolution in the waning months of the war and the treaty that takes months but in may 1783

getting stir crazy and british are still holding on to the city and he decides going along the frontiers only three maps and goes up as far as lake champlain to the north then comes back to schenectady and along the mohawk to ontario. then he writes a letter when he comes back to say i had a revelation about this trip after looking at maps and reading reports, for the first time i realized the inland waterways will be a political asset. they will be the ties that bind the nation together. here is a man who starts

going after every parcel of land trying to build a water re and admitting all the while it will decrease the value of the land and a man who was a serious speculator but was evolving into a great statesman and seeing the maps as addition seeing it as a rising empire in the new world to improve them and makes them the commercial arteries with the bond of mutual interest between the immigrants come in our newest citizens flowing to the mississippi and to the easterners in the great cities in the seaboard. if we look at this map in more detail, we can see a

boy captured his imagination , the cumberland, the tennessee, a great commercial arteries and of course, the mohawk where they would be the virginians by opening the erie canal before the potomac project came to fruition. and again, constantly in play as he tries to keep the country together against external threats. and the british were hanging on at the northern border of the country. this brown line that cuts through the center of the lake's is a new northern border of the united states and there were seven military post clearly never

on the american isuzu although never promising to give them up and keeping them on 1796 it was a thorn in the side of washington four years. and the british kept them with the native americans, the northwest tribes to foment as much trouble as they could on the borders of that was a challenge to the north. this is a member of north america and with washington's collection coming here is the detail showing the old southwest along the mississippi and what was called the strip between and the chattahoochee and the river -- yazoo river that

feeds into the mississippi and this is where the spanish now controlled west florida had similar trouble by farming good cherokees and the chickasaw and pit them against the sellers from georgia who were trying to move last and come into conflict broke her washington had a fire to deal with down here. in this case, he managed to stay out of four and invited 30 of the chiefs to come to new york and wind and dined them and part of the genius was to balance the forces and for the most part, avoid the conflict which he knew too well.

unfortunately aside from slavery the other great tragedy was the removal of the tribes from the west and washington tried his best to abide by the new treaties and wanted the administration to be honorable that the same time when you read deeply into his writing and letters to congress as he advise them before he became president, he basically said it is a tough game we told them not to side with the british. they picked the wrong side we will be as accommodating as possible but we will push them off the land and expand this map by thomas hudgens

from 1778, was washington's bible for western -- western expansion and it is tremendous to read the letters and papers to see him talking about specific current term refers them was up. >> host: said the great map but now it is superseded by this one and you can see him studying the mapping greedy tell when picking out the crossroads, the strategic point* that connects the great lakes to say this is where we have to strike see where they captured the miami village to hold the area of. with if we look at the map from a couple of years after the fact, abraham bradley, we can see the

three military campaigns washington launched during the presidencies the early 90's downfall -- that follows the cincinnati was a mere four to and others were built to protect the soldiers and then fallen timbers 1794, this is now fort wayne indiana today. as they destroy a the alliance fourth -- with the british as you see in washington and needed maps and win he retired he would need that to resolve his estate and this map, his own survey of 8,000-acre estate

was drawn 1793 while he was an office but an attempt to break up the farm to rent out and keeping the manor house, where the mansion is, but renting out to cable farmers the most component and the plan was to free the slaves. he had undergone a transformation from being a run-of-the-mill slaveholder too boring though whole institution, but he had a problem. his peers were still slaveholders and would have been shocked and felt betrayed if he freed the slaves while he was in office so he developed a secret plan where he could parcel out melt vernon and

then hire the slaves has free laborers. he cannot get the weiss family to agree and did not want to rock the boat while trying to get the treaty approved. and complicated political pressures coming story short, he did not three them while he was an office and the first figure in the land while an office but did the next best thing which upon the of death to free them in his well. i will conclude there with a two transformations of the inner and outer of the statesmen and the liberator and washington who was connected to the land, in his will lead back to being the surveyor to bring his

life full circle as he prepared to move on. thank you. [applause] >> that was a wonderful presentation. hall as i was listening, what were the editors like wind you were planning this? first of all, how will you sell this? and a book of maps past two cost a lot of money and ask to be big and it must of taken the enormous amount of time and effort and what were the conversations like? >> that is a great question. the initial expiration was an article in the yale

alumni magazine in 2007 highlighted the treasures of the sterling library map collection.@ and they have an atlas of 43 sheets that washington known to to depict most of eastern north america and my editor saw it as well and said what could it hurt? go up to north haven and take a look. the experience to open at one step along to washington is incomparable and almost breathing the same a year as in the fact is the feeling of being transported into his time and world view was very exciting and i came back to write a proposal. initially, as many books do, they evolves and start out to be something relatively short, of 5,000

word essays, selection of the maps, but as i began writing it and got deeply into the project, the chapter's would not stay short. the map had so much to tell. to spend several months looking at the maps and arranging them and groupings them what is the information and then going to the papers to see what jumped out. but with cost and things like that, since american flags are made in china, it was printed in hong kong that is why it has a reasonable price tag for what it is a 304 pages, large format, 200 map of the use and the caller. i have to say i have a great

relationship with george gibson as a visionary publisher and was willing to put the resources into what we believed would be an exciting venture. >> was there anything you were surprised you did not find from his letters or the maps or something not reflected in the letters? >> something about his life? >> something you did not see? >> yes. obviously what i wanted most was to be able to pinpoint more accurately when the he made certain decisions or bought certain maps by inference to do things i

could find a receipt where he bought the general topography of north america then compare the contents to the maps to see there was the overlap and infer that he had owned at least prince of the same map at a certain time. that was a challenge. other things i was looking for, i would have loved to have the maps that were written about because i knew they existed but lost to history as maps that were mentioned along the way it would be exciting to find it. >> the holy grail of maps quack ? >> the maps of the

wilderness would have been great. >> i have a question of the map that thomas jefferson sent from the south of france and was very interested in sa can now through the potomac. did you find anything at all? >> i did find letters between jefferson and washington and right after the war and the 1784 where jefferson took the initiative to write to washington to get him energized again about the potomac project. washington was coming back to mount vernon essentially after nine years away and his papers were removed to get out of the way and here is a man who just wanted to

get his personal life back in order and was distracted from these bigger projects and it is clear the letter from jefferson gets him fired up again and they talk in great detail about how do you get goods from the southern shores of lake erie to the beaver creek and how do we avoid pennsylvania and dead it through merrill lynch into virginia? the key map for that the hutton's shows a detail that was available too me. i did not find any manuscript. >> you didn't find any letters jefferson to washington from paris at all? >> i need to take all looks bernanke bought the map in paris but it was a wonderful letter.

>> i will have to look for that. [laughter] thank you.l@ >> mentioning there was a treasure trove in the stirling library at yale were others published and scattered and hard to get to? >> what happened to the rest of the maps? i called mount vernon to speak to the library and there. maps of this kind were pretty much gone. lot of material and it up at the boston athenaeum and what happened, as one scholar pointed out very interesting way, in the wake of the civil war the virginia first family was on hard times and they yale at less was handed down through nephews a captain the family

but in 1876 at the centennial exposition there was an auction and a lot of washington's possessions went there. so they have been scattered. but there are groupings that happen kept together. and this map now resides at the huntington library and santa barbara california parker is a treasure hunt to pull them all together. >> did you come across any maps they should with a dismal swamp area? pmi he was an investor in the dismal swamp company that is north carolina today. i did seat again there were certain strands i did not

have the time to pursue but certainly a fascinating aspect showing he was engaged in the commercial enterprises but connectedñ with selanne and who took the picture and made it into a principal map? >> what is the process to get that image? >> yes. some of them could be scanned but many are photographed on a huge camera that takes up a small room and has a bed with 10 holes that vacuum with the map of flat and then shot from overhead with cameras. one of the reasons i said

thanks to the whole team is we worked closely with yale or art director and some of the pictures was good to be issued to them as we adjusted the color and the focus there were minute increments effective throw off the focus are the color or everything and we ask them to shoot to not only the whole map but shot closeups of those areas so the resolution is high enough to print those close up the use. it is the arduous process. >> you could not use the flatbed around the country. >> you also get permission

but everything is electronic now. another interesting aspect is when i first looked at the maps, they were about to to be restored so we were very fortunate i could write the book using pre-conservation damages but the timing was such by the time we finished the writing, the conservator had done her work to create the use beautifully restored maps that were recreated for the buck. >> i was fortunate enough to steady -- studied the writings of george washington and every night he kept a diary of his

surveying in the one arianna and one night around the fireplace at the blige, a group of indians indians, fortunately they were friendly, they came in from a war party and he greeted them and the chief asked him had he ever seen have you ever danced a war dance? washington said know i have not so the chief said we will show you what it is like and brought washington

into the bay and and when around and around and he was allowed to go all-around and afterwards he said i wish i had been with you on this party because you only captured one and i would have liked to have seen all little more blood. [laughter] so i think i enjoy looking at the maps because with the comments by washington, this is wilderness and he reacted. thank you for your time.

>> what services did you use from this library since we are here? >> from here is a collection of washington's rating is published for the bicentennial in 1932 her keira in the digital age, one kn search the web some papers were digitize or a facsimile, transcription facsimile, transcription, it is a handy tool but there is something that you can crack open and page through and of course, is disappearing but

to do what year was a tremendous asset to search through on your own terms, a very different than working digital. washington's ratings edited by fitch -- fitzpatrick are a wonderful jewel but not every library has a full set to be so accessible. >> we have to give you time to catch your breath but what is your next project? [laughter] >> my second book is the devil's own work of the civil war draft riots and one thing i noticed speaking about it is that people wanted more knowledge about the history of military service in america.

there was a draft and you could get out of it for $300 but this student deferments in vietnam, world war i and the conversation was building. my work in progress is entitled from boulder hiro -- bunker hill to baghdad the military service and america. >> that is a great idea

it's just over an hour. everake nicholas lemann, welcome >> dean of graduate school of journalism. welcome, everybody. thise week maybe every week is this way but this is our media and telecommunications policy week we have any event tonight and also on thursday night from the fcc commissioner mike copps with a number of respondents to that. so what is this doing at a journalism school? >> when i was just turning in the dean 2003 i wass th sitting at my desk and the phone rang and it was ah young woman who was