Collection: Harold Fisk’s Maps of the Mississippi River

Harold Fisk’s maps of the Mississippi River’s meanders, traces and shifts over time were produced as part of a report for the Army Corps of Engineers in 1944. Documenting the entire length of the river, these maps track mapped historical courses from the following resources:

1. Bankline as shown on the 12th Edition of “Maps of the Mississippi River, Cairo, Ill. to the Gulf of Mexico, La.” dated January 1944 (#20 on maps)
2. Bankline as shown on maps of “Lower Mississippi River, Early Stream Channels, Cairo, Ill. to Baton Rouge, La.” (1880/#19, 1820/#18, 1765/#17) 
and courses reconstructed from aerial photographs from several surveys.

Fisk’s maps are more than merely technical representations of the movement of water over time, they are expressive works of line and color. The maps’ harmonious compositions are delightful, compelling, and visually inspiring. And no longer exist in tangible form.

Tom Ashcraft is an inquiry based artist who navigates in and out of the public realm with purposeful wandering.  His diverse practice is rooted in object/place making and the curiosities and rituals of everyday life.  From Tom:

“In 2008 I was working on a public art project in Cleveland, Mississippi when I discovered Harold Fisk’s 1944 maps of the lower Mississippi River.  Taken by the scale of Fisk’s project and the beauty of the maps, I wanted to see these in person and develop a project based on them.  I contacted the US Geological Survey to inquire about where I might be able to locate and view the maps in person.  After several transfers, conversations and inquiries, I was told that the originals had been destroyed, at some point, or no longer available in their original form and they only existed in a digital form.”

Deaccessioning is the process by which an archives, museum, or library permanently removes accessioned materials from its holdings. Materials may be deaccessioned for a number of reasons including that the repository has changed its collections policy and the material is no longer within its scope or they have been reappraised and found to be no longer suitable for continuing preservation. Deaccessioned material may be offered back to its donor, offered to another institution, or destroyed (from the Society of American Archivists).

One of the metrics by which items are appraised is usage. In public libraries, for instance, items which haven’t been accessed recently may be tapped for “weeding” out. Books which are taken from a shelf and returned to a library cart are also tracked to ensure as accurate as possible record of what materials are being used, even if they aren’t being checked out.

Ultimately, we don’t know why Fisk’s maps were deaccessioned, if they were destroyed, or where they ended up. It’s important to recognize, however, that sometimes in collections the premise “use it or lose it” holds up - the more publics know about collections they have access to, the more items are accessed. The more frequently they are accessed, their value is made clearer, and therefore increases. So logically, the more diverse and representative of a full range of lived experiences and interests the individuals engaging in collections are, the more representative of the collections’ constituencies interests, values, and needs the collections will become.

(images for this post from Radical Cartography, by Bill Rankin)

Here is the entire series together (click for a large version)