Texas Takes Shape
A History in Maps from the General Land Office
Published on 31. July 2025
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-1-4773-3092-0 (ISBN)
Description
A comprehensive volume on historical mapping in Texas.
The Texas General Land Office's map collection contains over 45,000 maps, some dating from the sixteenth century, making it one of the most important cartographic archives in Texas. As products and agents of history drawn by cartographers with motives and means as diverse as the places they document, maps provide a unique perspective on geopolitical, cultural, and economic processes. The maps of the GLO offer key insights into Texas's sprawling history. They speak to issues of changing borders, social and political upheaval, and questions of sovereignty and power.
Texas Takes Shape offers an illuminating selection from the GLO archive: over one hundred maps that tell-and sometimes obscure-the stories of European colonization, Spanish and Mexican rule, the Republic of Texas, and the modern US state. There are maps here of every scale, from the hemispheric visions of European explorers to individual survey plats. Accompanying essays offer fascinating lessons on topics ranging from Indigenous cartography to military and railroad mapmaking and frontier surveys. Artful and informative, Texas Takes Shape examines a unique place through the eyes and imaginations of those who sought to govern it, profit from it, understand it, and call it home.
The Texas General Land Office's map collection contains over 45,000 maps, some dating from the sixteenth century, making it one of the most important cartographic archives in Texas. As products and agents of history drawn by cartographers with motives and means as diverse as the places they document, maps provide a unique perspective on geopolitical, cultural, and economic processes. The maps of the GLO offer key insights into Texas's sprawling history. They speak to issues of changing borders, social and political upheaval, and questions of sovereignty and power.
Texas Takes Shape offers an illuminating selection from the GLO archive: over one hundred maps that tell-and sometimes obscure-the stories of European colonization, Spanish and Mexican rule, the Republic of Texas, and the modern US state. There are maps here of every scale, from the hemispheric visions of European explorers to individual survey plats. Accompanying essays offer fascinating lessons on topics ranging from Indigenous cartography to military and railroad mapmaking and frontier surveys. Artful and informative, Texas Takes Shape examines a unique place through the eyes and imaginations of those who sought to govern it, profit from it, understand it, and call it home.
Reviews / Votes
Texas Takes Shape is a beautifully illustrated and designed book of the most comprehensive map collection relating to Texas. Texas is unique in the Union in that it retained ownership of its public land, and this book makes clear that the creative and judicious use of that land is, in many ways, the creation story of present-day Texas. - Ron Tyler, University of Texas at Austin, author of Texas Lithographs: A Century of History in Images Texas Takes Shape is an astoundingly beautiful work of visual history. Surveying the Texas past through more than a hundred historical maps, this collection offers readers a remarkable new window into how individuals and empires have imagined, explored, and fought over the lands that became Texas. For anyone interested in understanding how maps have literally shaped the modern landscape of Texas, this is an absolute must-read. - Andrew J. Torget, University of North Texas, author of Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 Texas Takes Shape is both a guide to the extensive and ever-increasing map collection of the Texas General Land Office and a remarkable study of maps of Texas and the Southwest. This handsome and colorful volume is a pleasure for the eye of the book collector but also a treat for the reader who wants to understand how maps framed understandings of the state and the region over several centuries. - Kenneth Hafertepe, Baylor University, author of The Material Culture of German TexansMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
228 color images
Dimensions
Height: 312 mm
Width: 287 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
2608 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-3092-0 (9781477330920)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Mark Lambert | James Harkins | Brian A. Stauffer
Texas Takes Shape
A History in Maps from the General Land Office
E-Book
07/2025
1st Edition
University of Texas Press
€96.99
Available for download
Persons
Mark Lambert is the Senior Deputy Director for Heritage at the Texas General Land Office. James Harkins is the Deputy Director of Archives and Records. Brian A. Stauffer is the Director of Public Services and the author of Victory on Earth or in Heaven: Mexico's Religionero Rebellion. Patrick Walsh is a research specialist.
Content
List of Maps
Foreword by Dawn Buckingham
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Defining Texas
Chapter 1. Mapping the New World: An Age of Discovery
Beyond the Neatline-Uncovering the Base Layer: Indigenous Cartography in North America
Chapter 2. Competing Empires: Maps as Knowledge and Power, 1671-1830
Beyond the Neatline-Compasses and Crucifixes: Priests and Friars in the Mapping of Spanish North America
Chapter 3. Mapping Mexico: Uneven Geography
Beyond the Neatline-From the "Dead Desert" to the "Wonderland of Agriculture and Opportunity": Mapping the Nueces Strip 000:
Chapter 4. The Lone Star Rises: Maps of the Republic of Texas, 1835-1846
Beyond the Neatline-"A continued succession of abrupt sinuousities": The Joint Boundary Commission and the Republic of Texas, 1838-1841
Chapter 5. "The Republic of Texas is no more": The Lone Star State Takes Shape
Beyond the Neatline-The Art and Cartography of Eltea Armstrong
Part II. Developing Texas
Chapter 6. Contested Frontier: Pathfinders, Soldiers, and Military Maps
Beyond the Neatline-Land for Military Service: Bounty, Donation, and Confederate Scrip
Chapter 7. Connecting a Continent: Texas Land and the Expanding American Railroad System
Beyond the Neatline-Frontier Surveying in Texas
Chapter 8. All Boundaries Are Local: GLO County Maps
Beyond the Neatline-Drawing Conclusions: Manuscript Cartouches in the GLO
Chapter 9. The Growth and Urbanization of Texas: City Maps at the GLO
Beyond the Neatline-"Complete Success" to Obsolescence: The Photographic Bureau of the GLO, 1861-1874
Conclusions. Texas History on the Digital Frontier: Improving Access through Preservation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Authors
Foreword by Dawn Buckingham
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Defining Texas
Chapter 1. Mapping the New World: An Age of Discovery
Beyond the Neatline-Uncovering the Base Layer: Indigenous Cartography in North America
Chapter 2. Competing Empires: Maps as Knowledge and Power, 1671-1830
Beyond the Neatline-Compasses and Crucifixes: Priests and Friars in the Mapping of Spanish North America
Chapter 3. Mapping Mexico: Uneven Geography
Beyond the Neatline-From the "Dead Desert" to the "Wonderland of Agriculture and Opportunity": Mapping the Nueces Strip 000:
Chapter 4. The Lone Star Rises: Maps of the Republic of Texas, 1835-1846
Beyond the Neatline-"A continued succession of abrupt sinuousities": The Joint Boundary Commission and the Republic of Texas, 1838-1841
Chapter 5. "The Republic of Texas is no more": The Lone Star State Takes Shape
Beyond the Neatline-The Art and Cartography of Eltea Armstrong
Part II. Developing Texas
Chapter 6. Contested Frontier: Pathfinders, Soldiers, and Military Maps
Beyond the Neatline-Land for Military Service: Bounty, Donation, and Confederate Scrip
Chapter 7. Connecting a Continent: Texas Land and the Expanding American Railroad System
Beyond the Neatline-Frontier Surveying in Texas
Chapter 8. All Boundaries Are Local: GLO County Maps
Beyond the Neatline-Drawing Conclusions: Manuscript Cartouches in the GLO
Chapter 9. The Growth and Urbanization of Texas: City Maps at the GLO
Beyond the Neatline-"Complete Success" to Obsolescence: The Photographic Bureau of the GLO, 1861-1874
Conclusions. Texas History on the Digital Frontier: Improving Access through Preservation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Authors