What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy
Manufactured by leading American globe-making companies, slated globes were adopted in the second half of the nineteenth century as educational aid materials, recommended for teaching world geography from the 4th grade on. Focusing on their production and use in the US context at the turn of the twe...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
European Association for American Studies
2020-11-01
|
| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15703 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841558270555193344 |
|---|---|
| author | Mahshid Mayar |
| author_facet | Mahshid Mayar |
| author_sort | Mahshid Mayar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Manufactured by leading American globe-making companies, slated globes were adopted in the second half of the nineteenth century as educational aid materials, recommended for teaching world geography from the 4th grade on. Focusing on their production and use in the US context at the turn of the twentieth century, and following an examination of their role in teaching American children the fundaments of terrestrial geography, I probe these now forgotten, blank, black, educational table globes’ capacity in offering a timely “spatial fix” to the prosaic finality of an already overly and overtly known world that the globally rising US Empire was grappling with. Provoking, in equal measure, playfulness and patriotism, I argue, slated globes were washed of imperial colors and freed of the border lines imposed on them, drained of water and emptied of landmasses, only to be once more scathed, and tattooed with lines, colors, and names, watered and landed—in sum, to be “globed” in the hands of the generations of American youth, future stewards of the US Empire who were learning how to (re-)imagine the terra that was already made cognita by earlier colonial powers. Furthermore, I read slated globes as generative of terra incognita iterum (territory made unknown again)—a terra incognita of a different kind and for different purposes than the terra nondum cognita (territory yet unknown) of the previous centuries: a blank fraught with colonial urges of a young empire and charged with imperial pedagogics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9dfa88c790694ddabfca6b6c052d33ee |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-9dfa88c790694ddabfca6b6c052d33ee2025-01-06T09:09:02ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362020-11-0115210.4000/ejas.15703What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial PedagogyMahshid MayarManufactured by leading American globe-making companies, slated globes were adopted in the second half of the nineteenth century as educational aid materials, recommended for teaching world geography from the 4th grade on. Focusing on their production and use in the US context at the turn of the twentieth century, and following an examination of their role in teaching American children the fundaments of terrestrial geography, I probe these now forgotten, blank, black, educational table globes’ capacity in offering a timely “spatial fix” to the prosaic finality of an already overly and overtly known world that the globally rising US Empire was grappling with. Provoking, in equal measure, playfulness and patriotism, I argue, slated globes were washed of imperial colors and freed of the border lines imposed on them, drained of water and emptied of landmasses, only to be once more scathed, and tattooed with lines, colors, and names, watered and landed—in sum, to be “globed” in the hands of the generations of American youth, future stewards of the US Empire who were learning how to (re-)imagine the terra that was already made cognita by earlier colonial powers. Furthermore, I read slated globes as generative of terra incognita iterum (territory made unknown again)—a terra incognita of a different kind and for different purposes than the terra nondum cognita (territory yet unknown) of the previous centuries: a blank fraught with colonial urges of a young empire and charged with imperial pedagogics.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15703slated globesterrestrial globesimperial pedagogyUS empirecartographic blankterra incognita |
| spellingShingle | Mahshid Mayar What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy European Journal of American Studies slated globes terrestrial globes imperial pedagogy US empire cartographic blank terra incognita |
| title | What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy |
| title_full | What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy |
| title_fullStr | What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy |
| title_full_unstemmed | What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy |
| title_short | What on Earth! Slated Globes, School Geography and Imperial Pedagogy |
| title_sort | what on earth slated globes school geography and imperial pedagogy |
| topic | slated globes terrestrial globes imperial pedagogy US empire cartographic blank terra incognita |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15703 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mahshidmayar whatonearthslatedglobesschoolgeographyandimperialpedagogy |