London’s Geographic Knowledge Network and the Anson Account (1748)

Abstract

Parker outlines the major players and interdependent relationships within London that worked together to bring the Pacific to the printed page, followed by an analysis of the publication of a particular travel account, Anson’s Voyage Round the World (London: John and Paul Knapton, 1748). By tracing how information was gathered at sea and fixed in text and on maps, it is possible to see the international collaborative, yet competitive, effort necessary to create a world on paper. Such a paper world was a vital tool that spurred European expansion later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.