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The Passionate Geographer
If geography was an Olympic event, they'd say Derek Hayes was on steroids. With seven large-format titles in five years, he's easily one of Canada's most industrious his-torians. Hayes has designed every page of his new coffee table books-Canada: An Illustrated History (D&M $55) and America Discovered: Historical Atlas of Exploration (D&M $65). He's won three Alcuin Design Awards and a Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award since his debut in 1999.
BCBW: How did you develop your love for maps in the first place?
HAYES: I collected stamps as a child and I wanted to know where they all came from, hence out came the atlas. Then I got into geography academically, then city planning. I like to think that if a picture is worth a thousand words, a map must be worth ten thousand. Having said that, I would emphasize I try to write history using maps as the primary illustration. This has a wider audience than if I only wrote books about maps.
BCBW: Is research ever a burden or do you have an overwhelming passion for it?
HAYES: I love the thrill of tracking down information. I love the myriad of little things that you need to find in order to make your history relevant and alive. Finding out why something happened, what motivated an action or a policy, and I love discovering the original items that document them. Perhaps something signed or written or drawn so long ago, maybe under adverse conditions, and here it is in your hand! That the document survived at all is often a minor miracle. You do, however, come to a realization that there was a lot of material that never survived, was lost or destroyed before it was considered significant. We are beholden to the historical hoarders of the past.
BCBW: Beyond hard work, what's the secret to producing more than one book per year?
HAYES: Well, when I visit a particular library or archive, I try to collect maps for more than one book. For instance, when I was in several French archives last year, doing research for America Discovered, I collected maps and information for another book I have in preparation, a historical atlas of the United States. Books are often in gestation for quite a long time. The Historical Atlas of Canada involved three separate visits to the vaults of the National Archives of Canada [now Library and Archives of Canada].
BCBW: Personally, what did you get to 'discover' for America Discovered?
HAYES: I saw parts of the continent I hadn't previously visited, such as the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Roanoke Island. This was the site of the first attempts to found an English colony in America, promoted by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1580s. One could easily imagine finding oneself on an unknown shore, surrounded by overwhelming numbers of not always friendly native people.
BCBW: How does your illustrated history of Canada differ from the Historical Atlas of Canada?
HAYES: The new book includes facets of social history, not just the main story line of mainstream Canadian history, and it's illustrated with all manner of images, not just photos and paintings and maps, but also posters, stamps, cartoons, and even stained glass windows and a tapestry. There are also a number of never-before-published paintings from the Winkworth Collection, recently acquired by the National Archives. It's been a challenge to come up with the right mix of iconic and must-include images with the rarely-seen.
BCBW: Is there some mysterious map that you're craving to see?
HAYES: I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to track down the original maps of the Norwegian explorer, Otto Sverdrup, who discovered Canada's Far North in 1898-1902. He claimed it for Norway. This caused a furor in the Canadian government, and a number of expeditions were sent out specifically to claim sovereignty in the Arctic. In 1930 the government did a deal with Sverdrup and the Norwegian government whereby they purchased Sverdrup's maps and diaries for the then amazing sum of $67,000. They were able to presume Sverdrup had been working for Canada all the time and thus there could be no challenges to Canadian sovereignty in the region he discovered. But, despite an act of parliament to come up with the $67,000 (and this at the beginning of the Depression) and their significance to Canadian sovereignty, no one can find Sverdrup's maps. The diaries were returned to Sverdrup's family, but his granddaughter cannot recall any maps coming back. And they are not in the Norwegian National Library where the diaries are, still with their Department of the Interior stamp. Why would such important maps to Canada go missing? I wish I knew the answer.
BCBW: Men are notorious for not asking for directions when they go somewhere in a car; whereas women are more sensible about asking questions and using a map. True or false?
HAYES: [Laughter] I really don't know about that. I can only tell you that about 90% of the subscribers to the [now defunct] magazine about maps, Mercator's World, were male, and over 80% of the members of the Map Society of British Columbia are male. You're free to draw any conclusions from that you like. I try to be an honest and meticulous historian, not a sociologist. 1-55365-049-2
[BCBW 2004] "Geography"
BCBW: How did you develop your love for maps in the first place?
HAYES: I collected stamps as a child and I wanted to know where they all came from, hence out came the atlas. Then I got into geography academically, then city planning. I like to think that if a picture is worth a thousand words, a map must be worth ten thousand. Having said that, I would emphasize I try to write history using maps as the primary illustration. This has a wider audience than if I only wrote books about maps.
BCBW: Is research ever a burden or do you have an overwhelming passion for it?
HAYES: I love the thrill of tracking down information. I love the myriad of little things that you need to find in order to make your history relevant and alive. Finding out why something happened, what motivated an action or a policy, and I love discovering the original items that document them. Perhaps something signed or written or drawn so long ago, maybe under adverse conditions, and here it is in your hand! That the document survived at all is often a minor miracle. You do, however, come to a realization that there was a lot of material that never survived, was lost or destroyed before it was considered significant. We are beholden to the historical hoarders of the past.
BCBW: Beyond hard work, what's the secret to producing more than one book per year?
HAYES: Well, when I visit a particular library or archive, I try to collect maps for more than one book. For instance, when I was in several French archives last year, doing research for America Discovered, I collected maps and information for another book I have in preparation, a historical atlas of the United States. Books are often in gestation for quite a long time. The Historical Atlas of Canada involved three separate visits to the vaults of the National Archives of Canada [now Library and Archives of Canada].
BCBW: Personally, what did you get to 'discover' for America Discovered?
HAYES: I saw parts of the continent I hadn't previously visited, such as the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Roanoke Island. This was the site of the first attempts to found an English colony in America, promoted by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1580s. One could easily imagine finding oneself on an unknown shore, surrounded by overwhelming numbers of not always friendly native people.
BCBW: How does your illustrated history of Canada differ from the Historical Atlas of Canada?
HAYES: The new book includes facets of social history, not just the main story line of mainstream Canadian history, and it's illustrated with all manner of images, not just photos and paintings and maps, but also posters, stamps, cartoons, and even stained glass windows and a tapestry. There are also a number of never-before-published paintings from the Winkworth Collection, recently acquired by the National Archives. It's been a challenge to come up with the right mix of iconic and must-include images with the rarely-seen.
BCBW: Is there some mysterious map that you're craving to see?
HAYES: I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to track down the original maps of the Norwegian explorer, Otto Sverdrup, who discovered Canada's Far North in 1898-1902. He claimed it for Norway. This caused a furor in the Canadian government, and a number of expeditions were sent out specifically to claim sovereignty in the Arctic. In 1930 the government did a deal with Sverdrup and the Norwegian government whereby they purchased Sverdrup's maps and diaries for the then amazing sum of $67,000. They were able to presume Sverdrup had been working for Canada all the time and thus there could be no challenges to Canadian sovereignty in the region he discovered. But, despite an act of parliament to come up with the $67,000 (and this at the beginning of the Depression) and their significance to Canadian sovereignty, no one can find Sverdrup's maps. The diaries were returned to Sverdrup's family, but his granddaughter cannot recall any maps coming back. And they are not in the Norwegian National Library where the diaries are, still with their Department of the Interior stamp. Why would such important maps to Canada go missing? I wish I knew the answer.
BCBW: Men are notorious for not asking for directions when they go somewhere in a car; whereas women are more sensible about asking questions and using a map. True or false?
HAYES: [Laughter] I really don't know about that. I can only tell you that about 90% of the subscribers to the [now defunct] magazine about maps, Mercator's World, were male, and over 80% of the members of the Map Society of British Columbia are male. You're free to draw any conclusions from that you like. I try to be an honest and meticulous historian, not a sociologist. 1-55365-049-2
[BCBW 2004] "Geography"
Submitted on August 31, 2004 in By David.
