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Abstract
This article will survey a selection of maps associated with North American investment, colonization, and tourism in Cuba during the first 15 years following the Spanish American War; during this period, the United States intermittently occupied Cuba and contemplated annexing the country. Indeed, various railroad, steamship, and land companies, as well as journals such as the Cuba Review began to publish maps of Cuba. The maps emphasized how seamless and effortless travel could be to Havana and beyond. This paper will further show how these maps helped to make certain towns and scenic areas tangible to the American traveling public. Maps were often part of promotional literature leading tourists, colonists, and investors to have certain expectations of a new Cuba in which they could experience a healthy, safe, modern, land of abundance, but whose long history with Spain and long experience with multi-culturalism were either minimized or erased.
Cet article étudie une sélection de cartes associées avec l’investissement, la colonization, et le tourisme nord-américains à Cuba pendant les premières quinze années qui ont suivi la guerre hispano-américaine; pendant ce temps, les Etats-Unis ont occupé Cuba par intervalles et ont pensé annexer le pays. En effet, des sociétés de chemin de fer, de paquebot, et de propriété foncière, aussi bien que des journaux tel que le Cuba Review ont commencé à publier des cartes de Cuba. Ces cartes soulignaient comment on pouvait voyager sans complication ni effort à la Havane et au-delà. Cet article montre comment ces cartes ont aidé à rendre certains villages et régions panoramiques tangibles au public (de l’Amérique du Nord) qui aimait voyager. Les cartes faisaient souvent partie de la littérature publicitaire qui menait les touristes, les colons, et les investisseurs à avoir certaines expectations d’une nouvelle Cuba où ils pouvaient connaître une terre d’abondance saine, moderne, et sans danger, mais dont la longue histoire avec l’Espagne et la longue expérience avec le multiculturalisme étaient ou minimisées ou effacées.
Este artículo examina una selección de mapas asociados con la inversión, la colonización y el turismo estadounidenses en Cuba durante los quince años posteriores a la guerra hispano-estadounidense; durante este período, Estados Unidos ocupó Cuba intermitentemente y se planteó la anexión del país. De hecho, varias empresas de ferrocarriles, de barcos de vapor y de inversión en suelo, así como revistas como la Cuba Review, comenzaron a publicar mapas de Cuba. Los mapas enfatizaban lo fluido y descansado que podía ser el viajar a La Habana y más allá. Este artículo muestra cómo estos mapas ayudaron a hacer tangibles ciertas ciudades y zonas pintorescas para el público viajero (estadounidense). Los mapas eran a menudo parte de obras publicitarias que les daban a turistas, colonos e inversores ciertas expectativas de una nueva Cuba en la que podrían experimentar una tierra de la abundancia sana, segura y moderna, pero cuya larga historia con España y larga experiencia con el multiculturalismo fueron minimizadas o borradas.
Notes
1 See for example articles and op-ed letters in various contemporary newspapers: “Cuba Not at the Door: Annexation Sentiment Greatly Overestimated by Congress,” Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1900, p. 5. https://search.proquest.com/docview/172960581/2A37F51FFBF64FB0PQ/1?accountid=12084; J. S. P., “Against Cuban Annexation,” New York Times, February 16, 1902, p. 6. https://search.proquest.com/docview/96218781/3B05485EE43E4210PQ/1?accountid=12084; “A Protectionist View of the Cuban Question,” Baltimore Sun, March 29 1901, p. 4. https://search.proquest.com/results/B09DC46D480042BFPQ/1?accountid=12084.
2 These maps are held by the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.
3 I borrow freely from various chapters and essays in Denis Wood with John Fels, The Power of Maps, (New York: Guilford Press, 1992) and Brian Harley, New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, ed. Paul Laxton, intro. by J. H. Andrews, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
4 On authors and subjects see Wood, The Power of Maps, 1992, pp. 23–25 and pp. 182–195; on codes used in maps to convey points of view, see p. 184 and Chapter Five.
5 On silences in maps, see Harley, The New Nature of Maps, 2001, pp. 88–89, and also pp. 67–69; on cartographic decorations, see pp. 73–81.
6 Susan Schulten, Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth Century America, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), p. 3.
7 Ibid, p. 6.
8 John R. Hébert and Anthony Mullan, The Luso-Hispanic World in Maps: A Selective Guide to Manuscript Maps to 1900 in the Collections of the Library of Congress, (Washington: Library of Congress, 1999), p. 2.
9 Brian L. McLaren used this phrase to describe Italy’s effort to develop tourism in Libya in the early 1920s. See, Brian L. McLaren, Architecture and Tourism in Italian Colonial Libya: An Ambivalent Modernism, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006), p. 54.
10 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture, (Chapel Hill, NC: Universtiy of North Carolina Press, 1999), p. 166.
11 Sarah Brown, “American Tourists’ Narratives of the Caribbean, 1839–1939: A Study of the Experience of Tourism and of Cultural Encounter” (Phd diss., George Washington University, 1995), p. 186. https://search.proquest.com/docview/304196984?accountid=12084.
12 Cited in J. W. Martin, “Mapping an Empire: Tourist Cartographies of the Caribbean in the Early Twentieth Century,” Early Popular Visual Culture, 9, no. 1 (2011): p. 9. doi: 10.1080/17460654.2011.544110.
13 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., On Becoming Cuban, pp. 168, 169, 173.
14 “Story of a Hotel: Mr. Plant Originally Intended to Build One …,” The Atlanta Constitution, (December 22, 1893), p. 2, https://search.proquest.com/docview/193646588/B8EAC5400DB44E7BPQ/1?accountid=12084.
15 Ibid.
16 J. W. Martin, “Mapping an Empire,” 2011, pp. 3–4. Martin identifies this as “ease of movement through space”.
17 In fact, the Philadelphia map publisher, J. L. Smith, published another map of Cuba in 1898 with the title, “Isla de Cuba”. Although both used the same base map, the second map has no accompanying inset maps of the Philippines and Puerto Rico. And in the map text of the second map, the commentary about Cuban independence hero José Martí is much more pronounced than in the first map. It is likely that these two maps were printed for different audiences. The first seems clearly aimed at an American audience supportive of colonization, whereas the second is likely intended for an audience supportive of Cuban independence. It may have even been commissioned by Cubans in Philadelphia in the 1890s or by the Republican Society of Cuba which had branches in Tampa, New York, and Philadelphia. For a discussion on the Cuban presence in late nineteenth century Philadelphia and the economic importance of cigar makers, see Victor Vázquez, “The Development of Pan-Latino Philadelphia 1892–1945,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 128, no. 4, (October, 2004), pp. 369–70.
18 “Beveridge Tells of Our Duty in Cuba,” Chicago Daily Tribune, (October 1, 1906), p. 8. https://search.proquest.com/docview/173368947?accountid=12084.
19 “Mr. Wrenn as an Advertiser: He Has Arranged for Artistic Advertising … ”, The Atlanta Constitution, (December 25, 1898), p. A12. https://search.proquest.com/docview/495486496?accountid=12084.
20 Ibid., p. A12.
21 The other rail system alluded to was the J. T. and K. W. System. See William Drysdale, “Under the Orange Trees: Random Notes of a Journey to Florida …, ” New York Times, January 25, 1891, p. 17. https://search.proquest.com/docview/94900547?accountid=12084.
22 Ibid., p. 17. Drysdale was already touting rail travel as means of reaching both Florida and Cuba in 1890. In a signed article, Drysdale noted “the mail route to Tampa by rail and thence to Havana by steamer. The West India fast mail train from New York reaches Tampa at 11:30 at night, and thirty minutes later the steamer sails, touching … at Key West.” See William Drysdale, “To Escape Cold Weather. Seven Southern Havens Open to Americans …, ” New York Times, November 9, 1890, p. 10.
23 Drysdale, “Under the Orange Trees …, ” New York Times, p. 17.
24 Carmen Diana Deere, “Here Come the Yankees! The Rise and Decline of United States Colonies in Cuba, 1898–1930,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 78, no. 4, (November, 1998), p. 737. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2518425.
25 Oscar Zanetti and Alejandro Garcia, Sugar and Railroads: A Cuban History, 1837–1958, (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1987), tr. by Franklin W. Knight and Mary Todd, p. 235.
26 “Cuban Railroads”, The Railroad Gazette, vol. 34, (February 28, 1902), p. 9. https://search.proquest.com/docview/903888558?accountid=12084.
27 “A Visit to Matanzas, Cuba’s Largest City,” The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, vol. 29, (November 15, 1902), p. 20. https://search.proquest.com/docview/757733180?accountid=12084.
28 Cuba: A Winter Paradise (Buffalo, NY: The Matthews-Northrup Works, 1911).
29 Ibid., p. 9.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., p. 11.
32 Ibid., p. 13.
33 Ibid., p. 25.
34 Ibid., p. 28.
35 Havana Central Railroad, (Buffalo: The Matthews-Northrup Works, ca. 1908).
36 Ibid., 1908, “Hoyo Colorado Sub-Power Station … ” [photo].
37 Ibid., “On the Way to Guanajay.” [photo].
38 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., On Becoming Cuban, p. 167.
39 J. B. Harley, “Maps, Knowledge, and Power”, in The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, ed. Paul Laxton, intro. J. H. Andrews (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 2001), p. 73.
40 “Havana Passenger Station,” Railway Age Gazette, 50, no. 9, (March 3, 1911), p. 383. https://search.proquest.com/docview/886554314?accountid=12084.
41 José A. Gelabert-Navia, “American Architects in Cuba: 1900–1930,” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Cuba Theme Issue 22, (1996), p. 136. doi: 10.2307/1504151.
42 Carmen Diana Deere, “Here Come the Yankees,” p. 731. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2518425.
43 Ibid., p. 737.
44 Ibid., p. 730.
45 Michael E. Neagle, America’s Forgotten Colony: Cuba’s Isle of Pines (Cambridge Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations), (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
46 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., “Insurrection, Intervention, and the Transformation in Land Tenure Systems in Cuba, 1895–1902,” Hispanic American Historical Review 65, no. 2, (May, 1985), p. 249. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2115258.
47 “Forty Thousand United States Veterans to Found a Cooperative American City”, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 23, 1899, p. 22. https://search.proquest.com/docview/577381559?accountid=12084.
48 See “American Enterprise in Cuba,” The Cuban Colonist, 1, no. 1, (July, 1899), p. 11. The article urges prospective colonists to buy 50 × 100 or 50 × 150(?) lot sizes for cultivation fruit, vegetables, and flowers enough “to supply a family.”
49 Cuban Land & Steamship Company, Official Map of Cuba, (New York: Bormay & Co., 1899?).
50 This map includes references to both “Longitude West from Washington” and “Longitude West from Greenwich”, the former along the top of the map and the latter along the bottom of the map. Yet the longitude readings along both the upper and lower borders are based on Greenwich as the prime meridian and not on Washington. This suggests that the map was produced hastily (and carelessly). Although some readers may interpret this otherwise, this author does not find the mention of both the Greenwich and Washington meridians as a particular indication of a nationalistic agenda. It was common practice at the time for American maps to include longitude readings from both Greenwich and Washington.
51 James M. Adams, Pioneering in Cuba: A Narrative of the Settlement of La Gloria, the First American Colony in Cuba and the Early Experiences of the Pioneers, (Concord, NH: Rumford Press, 1901), p. 71.
52 “The Dawn of the 20th Century in the Pearl of the Antilles” (journal cover), The Cuban Colonist, 2, no. 1, (January, 1900).
53 “American Enterprise in Cuba”, The Cuban Colonist, 1, no 1, (July, 1899), p. 11.
54 James M. Adams, Pioneering in Cuba, p. 74.
55 “La Gloria” (advertisement), The Cuba Bulletin, 1, no. 6, (November, 1903), p. 7.
56 Juan C. Santamarina, “The Cuba Company and the Expansion of American Business in Cuba, 1898–1915,” The Business History Review 74, no. 1, (Spring 2000), p. 59. doi: 10.2307/3116352.
57 Ibid., p. 42. The other incorporators included Levi Morton, former governor New York, General Grenville Dodge, E. H. Harriman of Union Pacific Railroad, and William Lord of the law firm, Lord, Day, and Lord.
58 Santamarina, “The Cuba Company”, p. 42.
59 Ibid., p. 42.
60 Dorothy Stanhope, “The Cuba of the Present: Marvelous Changes Which Have Taken Place … ”, New York Times, (January 4, 1903), SMA3 (Sunday Magazine): https://search.proquest.com/docview/96335489?accountid=12084.
61 Santamarina, “The Cuba Company,”, p. 62.
62 See, for example, Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964).
63 “The Cuba Railroad” (advertisement), in The Cuba Review and Bulletin, Vol. 5, no. 2, (January, 1907).
64 Louis A. Pérez, Jr., “Insurrection, Intervention, and the Transformation of Land Tenure Systems,” pp. 229–254.
65 Ibid., p. 247.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., p. 244.
68 Ibid.
69 See Chapter Three, “Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe” in J.B. Harley, The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, ed. by Paul Laxton, intro. by J. H. Andrews, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), pp. 84–89.
70 Ricardo Padrón, “Mapping Imaginary Worlds” in Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, (2007), p. 284.
71 “Americans in Cuba (advertisement),” The Boston Daily Globe, September 24, 1905, p. SMA3. https://search.proquest.com/docview/500480522?accountid=12084.
72 “Summer Resort in Cuba,” in The New York Tribune, vol. ?, December 21, 1903, p. 4. Proquest.
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid.
75 Michael Neagle, America’s Forgotten Colony: Cuba’s Isle of Pines, p. 36.
76 C. W. Hayes, The Isle of Pines, Caribbean Sea: Its Situation, Physical Features, Inhabitants, Resources, and Industries, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1906), pp. 25–26.
77 Neagle, America’s Forgotten Colony, pp. 28–29.
78 Ibid.
79 See Isle of Pines Appeal, 9, no. 38, (December 28, 1912), (various pages).
80 Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Owners of Land on the Canada Tract, Isle of Pines, 59th Congress, 1st session, 1906, 59th Congress, 1st session, Ex. Doc. No. 1.
81 Neagle, America’s Forgotten Colony, p. 153.
82 Ibid., p. 153.
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Anthony Mullan
Anthony Mullan is an Associate Editor of Terrae Incognitae. He is retired from the Library of Congress where he first served as Fine Arts specialist in the Main Reading Room and subsequently as a Reference Specialist in the Geography and Map Division. An abiding interest of his has been the close relationship of fine art and cartography which continues to inform his research. His focus has been the historical cartography of Latin America. He coauthored with John Hébert, The Luso-Hispanic World in Maps: A Selective Guide to Manuscript Maps to 1900 in the Collections of the Library of Congress. E-mail: [email protected]