I am careful to differentiate
between a decorative border and illustrations, in that leaves and flowers can serve as part in a repetitious form to create a “frame” that serves strictly as a decorative border for the map. This differs greatly from depictions of various items (flags, presidents,
buildings, indigenous flora and fauna, etc.) that falls within the margins but still surrounds the map as does a frame. Since illustrations can vary from one publisher’s atlas to the next, we often see these maps out of their original context; the borders
and illustrations can help us to differentiate one printing from another by these variations. I have even noticed that very subtle variations exist for the same style border on what I thought to be the same map, probably because they came from subsequent editions
of the same publisher’s atlas. It’s something that you wouldn’t notice unless you had several of what you thought to be the same map right in front of you, which I had. It’s because of these little changes that I take the extra effort at providing some detailed
description of the illustrations. It’s not quite as good as having the digital image to compare to, but it does help.
Metadata
Archivist
Access
& Discovery
University
of Texas at Arlington Libraries
817-272-6209
From:
Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Joel Kovarsky
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 8:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What is it called? Title block with artistic drawing cartouche
Might also take a look at "Taking possession: the cartouche as cultural text in eighteenth-century American maps" by G. Clark:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/clarke/clarke.html
. There are any number of other discussions, but this one is readily accessible, although it is not dealing with cataloging terminology and the linked illustrations are of limited value (the ones Angie notes from the Rumsey site are infinitely better).
Joel Kovarsky
On 4/21/2016 9:38 AM, Angela R Cope wrote: