1882 Ernest W. DuBois Schoolboy mansucript map of Texas

An attractive manuscript schoolboy / schoolgirl map of Texas by Ernest W. DuBois. Entitled the 'West Central States,' this map in fact focuses primarily on Texas with the adjacent Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Louisiana, and Arkansas also included. The map is finely drawn throughout with great attention to rivers and town placement. No counties are identified.

Schoolgirl / Schoolboy Maps

While the use of mapmaking in teaching is first seen in Europe, mainly England, the Schoolgirl / Schoolboy Map became a peculiarly American pedagogical tool in the first part of the 19th Century, a period in which standards and purposes of education were changing. While boys were frequently taught the practical execution of surveys and charts, the production of attractive and informative maps appears to have been primarily the domain of young women. Such maps can be found of the World, the United States, or more specific maps of states. These were usually based on generally available reference maps, such as those found in the atlases produced by Carey and Lea, Finley, and Mitchell.

The goals of these exercises were more far-reaching than teaching geography. Studemts learned penmanship, each map often using three or more lettering styles. Mapmaking sharpened the retention and recall of factual information. Students were encouraged to take pains in their draftsmanship, and often achieved beautiful flourishes of artistic expression in their maps. But most peculiar to the American iterations of educational mapping was the goal of instilling a sense of civic pride and responsibility. Indeed, the key desired result of education in the post-Revolutionary-War United States was to prepare for the education of the next generation of American citizens.

Publication History and Census

The author, Ernest W. DuBois, no doubt drew this map during his schoolboy years as St. Augustine College for Boys, an Episcopalian boys school in Benicia California. DuBois was born in 1870, suggesting that this map must have been drawn between 1880 and 1887, when DuBois attended the school between the ages of 10 and 17. DuBois parents emigrated to Marin County California in 1863. He himself spent his life in California where he amassed considerable real-estate holdings.