Coastal views and handedness

Cafe --

I'm presently involved in a complicated discussion on the MapHist
discussion list, and could use your help again with research questions.

Our discussion is nominally about "coastal views" (aka "recognition
views", "coastal profiles", "coast recognition profiles"), although as
usual whenever I'm involved, we've taken several detours into related
topics, including discussion of: the camera obscura and camera lucida,
and their use for making coastal views, from C17 through C19 ... the
development of the telescope ... whether or not "coastal views"
(especially the more artistic ones) qualify as "maps" ... the
influence of coastal views on Thomas Hariot's lunar maps ... C17 maps
of the moon, in general, and questions over whose lunar map came first
(Hariot's or Galileo's) ... instructional texts concerning the making
of coastal views across the centuries ... the how & why behind changes
in the production and type of "coastal views" across the centuries ...
and whether or not those who did drawing/drafting were trained to be
right-handed during C19/C20....

I've no doubt left out a few other topics which have been discussed
along the way, but it shouldn't matter for the questions I want to
pose now to the Cafe.

Before I do, though, 2 quick digressions:

#1  Vladimiro Valeria of the MapHist list recommended a recent book on
Wollaston's camera lucida and the ways in which it

	"changed dramatically the way of inspecting and reproducing
	nature in Art and Science"

during C19. I expect others on this list besides me will be interested
in the title, which is:

	Fiorentini, Erna, ed.  _Observing Nature: The Osmotic Dynamics
	of Romanticism Representing Experience 1800-1850_.  Berlin:
	Reimer, 2007.

Trying to persuade me to have a look (despite vocal resistance on my
part, since this is definitely NOT my period, and I already have way
too much to read), Vladimiro wrote:

	"on page 69 there is a drawing by Giacinto Gigante taken with
	the Camera Lucida by Giovanbattista Amici (active in Modena),
	who copied and improved the instrument invented by Wollaston.
	12 Camera Lucida were bought by Ferdinando Visconti in 1818
	just to use of portarying landscape and take costal views (p.
	69-70). The front cover of the volume is a satirical portrait
	of "The English Painter" with a Wollaston Camera Lucida
	standing at his left. Erna Fiorentini studied the application
	of Camera Lucida to Art even if in this volume she highlights
	the use made by Herschel."

And that was provocative enough for me to add it to my reading list.

#2  In posting to MapHist about the lunar maps of Hariot, Galileo,
Hevelius, Wren and Hooke, I caught myself using the phrases

	"Hariot's visual style"

and

	"Hooke's visual style"

and couldn't help LOL as I did so.

It appears that I learned something from Gunnar after all! ;-)

That doesn't mean I get Scott McCloud's Big Triangle yet, though.

It's true that I've developed some insight about how some
cartographers have a noticeable "visual style", but I still wouldn't
know how/if this applies to comics artists ... or how one would map
different cartographic visual styles within the Big Triangle.

But I'll keep on thinking about it....


Now, on to my questions for the Cafe about drawing coastal views.

On 20 Jan. 2009, Charles @ Stepladder Books wrote the following to the
MapHist discussion list:

	"In response to Diederick's request for 'guidebooks' about the
	art of producing Coastal Views, I have just come across such a
	reference with which he may already be familiar.

	"It appears in HYDROGRAPHICAL SURVEYING by the late
	Rear-Admiral Sir William J.L. Wharton, K.C.B.  London:
	John,Murray 1920.  570pp, incldg. Index.  My copy is the 4th
	Edition.  Pages 93-95 (w/double-page fold-outs of a drawn
	coastal view) provide a rather concise primer regarding such a
	construct.

	"The sketch is titled: FROM KOKO (triangulation station symbol
	[i.e. a triangle with 'dot' enclosed]) FIL LIGHTHOUSE JULY
	24th 1881.' and subtitled 'Rough Sketch from a (triangulation
	station symbol [as above]) showing method of marking angles,
	elevations, depressions, &c., and also mode of turning down
	paper for continuous panorama.'

	"To give some flavor of the process, I quote a few salient
	parts from the narrative that accompanies the sketch:

	"'Sketching . . . is within anybody's reach.  A fairly correct
	outline is all that is absolutely necessary, and a very little
	practice will enable the least likely draughtsman to make a
	sufficient sketch for practical purposes.

	"'It is well for the beginner to commence by taking some rough
	angles to check his scale, or, until he is used to it, he will
	probably have one part of his view two or three times as big
	as the other, which is confusing afterwards, although the
	proper angles will be written against the prominent objects
	when the sketch is finished.

	"'Always put the most distant outline on the paper first, as
	it is far easier to keep the scale uniform if this is done.

	"'Begin on the extreme left of your view, or if it is an
	all-around view, choose a point, in the direction least
	required, to be the left, and always work to the right.

	"'If the sketch is too long for one double page of the
	sketchbook, when the right-hand end is reached, turn over, and
	turn 1 or 2 inches of the last page down, so as to show on the
	fresh page; this will give a commencement for the part to
	follow, and the sketch will be continuous.
	. . . . . . . . .
	"'In sketching for this purpose, it is well to rather
	exagerate the height of objects,as, where there are hills,
	range upon range, or many objects, as houses, trees, etc., at
	different altitudes, they will get so crowded up as to make
	the sketch difficult to decipher, unless this course is
	adopted.
	. . . . . . . . .
	"'Views of distant land intended for reproduction on the
	published chart should be drawn very accurately to scale, both
	vertically and horizontally, from sextant angles.  A
	convenient scale for horizontal angles is 0.2 inch to a
	degree, and for vertcal angles 0.3 inch to a degree, or even
	larger.  The position from which a sketch is taken should
	always be noted upon it.
	. . . . . . . . .
	"(And in conclusion to this discourse, the author notes:)
	"'Views are very valuable for picking up the land and
	identifying landmarks shown on the chart, but the positions
	from which they are taken should be carefully considered; if
	not taken from a sufficient distance seaward, they may not be
	worth engraving.  The requirements of the navigator must be
	remembered.'

	"It should be further noted that the above sketch was
	generated from a fixed position ashore (i.e. a lighthouse)
	with a large embayment separating the observer from the hilly
	shoreline beyond and the open sea beyond (could as well be San
	Francisco Harbor).  But much the same principles could be
	applied to making such a sketch from seaward, perhaps even
	from an anchored vessel prior to making its approach to such a
	harbor.

	"The above is contained within the chapter: 'The Main
	Triangulation.'

	"Other chapters in this book worthy of attention that relate
	to this subject are: Chapter VI 'Running Survey' and Chapter
	VII 'Coast-Lining.'"

When I read this, I fixated immediately on Wharton's instruction that
we always draw a coastal view from left to right ("Begin on the
extreme left of your view ..."), and asked MapHisters about it:

	"Why not begin on the extreme right of your view, and draw to
	the left?

	"I'm trying to figure out if this norm of viewing (and
	drawing) from left to right is culturally conditioned by the
	fact that English-language speakers read from left to right --
	and Wharton does go on to talk about producing multi-page
	sketches as they would be read in English -- or if it has
	something to do with a 'universal' human trait.

	"Is there something 'natural' or more useful about viewing a
	coastline from left to right? ... in which case, I guess it
	would make sense to draw it that way, too...."

My post drew the following response from Yvette Hoitink:

	"There may be a very practical reason for this: people wrote
	with their right hand.

	"Even people who were born left-handed were taught to write
	right-handed.

	"Using your right hand, working from left to right doesn't
	smudge the earlier work."

This made sense to me, and I accepted it as another more practical
(although still culturally-conditioned) reason why coastal views were
supposed to be drawn (by British mariners) from left to right.

But then Doug McIlroy raised an important question:

	"People were trained to write right-handed, but did that carry
	over to drawing?  One bit of anecdotal evidence: mechanical
	drawing was part of the job of an ancestor of mine, who was a
	tool and die maker.  He wrote in a fine Spencerian hand
	right-handed as taught in school.  His skill as a draftsman,
	though, was developed later in life.  For the lettering that
	entailed he used his left hand.  I presume he did all drawing
	with his dominant left hand.  Family tradition is very clear,
	though, about cursive right, block letters left."

My response to this was:

	"Interesting.... <bg>

	"As I stated earlier, I have no idea about 19th-century
	drawing/drafting practices.

	"There were few standards of any kind in the 17th century, and
	none at all of which I'm aware concerning right or left
	handedness, so I really can't speculate intelligently on this.

	"Some colleagues on another discussion list I belong to
	probably can, though, and as soon as I get a spare moment,
	I'll ask them about C19/C20 coastal views and handedness."


Consider it asked,
Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]














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