original horns with maps.

[ewan]

hi, i was wondering how accurate the maps are on historic horns. any academic work been done on this? now, i'm not suggesting a proper scaled surveyed/measured map useful for navigation or anything.
but, were they purely cosmetic?
roughly correct - as far as the maker knew anyway?
or, was there a period when the maps placed on horns were from accurate paper ones.

really, i'd like to see one that had a map correct for it's area and time.
cheers.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Ft. Ticonderoga has (had?) a display of some knock-your-socks-off campaign horns from the F&I War era. In drooling over them, I would say the maps engraved by soldiers in their spare time are more representative of the order in which geographical features would be found than a true proportional distance at some scale. These were likely done as the units moved from camp-to-camp, or else copied from other copies, etc. for use as SERE maps (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) in the event the soldier needed to get somewhere in an emergency. These were not men of letters or cartographers. How accurate would a map be that you drew (or scratched in a horn) of your last vacation trip?

There are also some professional hornsmith works that are as accurate as the best maps then available.