Guest Speaker, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf

Researcher, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf
and High School Humanities Teacher, Sky Davey
at River's Edge Academy

As part of River Journey this spring, teachers at River's Edge Academy are incorporating river and water themes into core content classes. In the Civil War unit, humanities teacher, Sky Davey will be engaging his students in map study and map making to explore the role of the Mississippi River in the Civil War, with particular attention to the Battle of Vicksburg.

To support that exploration, Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota, visited the class on Monday, April 20th, to share her research as an art historian, on the role and perception of maps of the Mississippi River in the 1800's.  She showed a variety of map examples to highlight questions such as:

Detail of ribbon map from 1800's
showing the city of Vicksburg

What does the map show and not show and why?
Who is the map maker and who is the audience?
How was the map displayed?
In what context was the map used?
What was its purpose?
What was the access to the map, and by whom?
What was the influence of the map?


Nenette will be presenting this Thursday, April 23rd at the University of Minnesota in a related talk, titled, "Image as Levee: the Mississippi River before Mark Twain" speaking about maps as well as other images of the Mississippi River.

Thanks, Nenette for your time and insights!