On May 16, we hosted From The Vault — Changed/Forgotten: Places That No Longer Exist.

Every place goes through changes, even the cities, countries, and empires we think will be around until the end of time. Sometimes environmental shifts or disasters bring about a catastrophic collapse. Other times human whims and desires lead to the decimation of historic areas, irreversibly altering the very fabric of the region.

Through the maps on display from this From The Vault, we can revisit these places of the past. From the historic counterparts of modern day cities or the ancient ruins of a fallen society, Changed/Forgotten demonstrates just how much has changed, how much has been forgotten, and yet how much still remains from a time gone by.

William Hemsley Emory, Map of Texas and the country adjacent (1844)

Published the year before Texas was annexed and became the 28th state of the USA, this map depicts the short-lived country of the Republic of Texas. Recognized as a country between 1836 and 1844, Texas had gained its independence from Mexico, though they were considered more of a “rebellious province” as the Mexican Congress refused to recognize the independence of the Republic of Texas. As seen, the borders of the Republic extend much further than the current state of Texas, reaching as far north as Wyoming and as far west as New Mexico. In practice, much of the Republic’s claimed territory was occupied by the Comanche people and outside the control of any country.

Though the Republic of Texas only existed for a short while, how did it go on to impact the future of the territory it occupied?

Richard Rummell, New York City : the business center of the borough of Manhattan (1905)

This era of New York is no longer visible under the skyscrapers and modern changes the city has undergone in the last century. Some of the largest physical changes to the city are reflected in the total demolition and rebuilding of some of the city’s most historic buildings and neighborhoods.

Buildings like the New York Produce Exchange (which brought in $15 million a day in business by 1900) and others obscured by the angle of this map, like Madison Square Garden, the Singer Building, the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels amongst many others, were eventually demolished to make way for the “City of Dreams”. The Empire State Building, New York Penn Station, and the current iteration of Madison Square Garden are all built on the sites of what were once thought of as some of the most amazing architecture in the United States.

Is it possible to grow, expand, and modernize without rebuilding the oldest parts of a city?

John Wesley Powell, Linguistic families of American Indians north of Mexico [1907?]

Originally displayed at Chicago’s 1893 World Fair, this reconstructed map shows the distribution of major Indigenous language families at the time of European contact. Most maps published in the 1890s only depicted Indian reservations, but this map recognized that Native people originally controlled and inhabited all of North America. While not fully representative of every language spoken by the indigenous North American people, this breathe of Native language is much more difficult to find in the current day.

Due to the harmful action of the American government, like outlawing the use of Native languages and the forced removal of Indigenous children from their homes and into government-run (and oftentimes, physically abusive) boarding schools, the amount of fluent speakers of indigenous languages had drastically decreased. Approximately 170 to 175 Native American languages are still spoken in the US today, down from the estimated 300+ languages spoken before European contact. Many of these languages are facing endangerment, with some estimates suggesting that only 20 will remain by 2050 without significant intervention.

Steeger, Nuova pianta degli scavi di Pompei (1862)

Located at the southeastern base of Mount Vesuvius, the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii were discovered in the late 16th century; however, serious archaeological excavations did not begin at the site until the mid-18th century. The city had been “preserved in time” for nearly 1,700 years after Vesuvius exploded in 79 CE and buried the site in nearly 23 feet of volcanic debris.

The 1862 map displayed here illustrates the excavations of Pompeii as they existed at that time, and lists 95 points of interest, including the Forum (65), the Triangular Forum (84) and the Amphitheatre (89).

W.B. Clarke, Plan of ancient Rome (1830)

This early-19th century map illustrates ancient Rome, where numerous scenes from Antony and Cleopatra (a play by Shakespeare) unfolded, and includes depictions of the monuments to be found throughout the city. Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire, which stretched nearly 1.7 million miles from Britain and Spain to Syria. In the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, Ancient Rome had reached its peak and it’s believed the city had a population of one million people, though this number is a possible overestimation.

The modern city of Rome is the capital of Italy and is home to over 4.2 million residents, making it one of the largest cities by population in all of Europe. Rome’s history spans 28 centuries and fell under many different forms of leadership.

Though the city has remained in name for over 2800 years, is it still the same place it was all that time ago?

Christiaan van Adrichem, Ierusalem, et suburbia eius, sicut tempore Christi floruit c[um] locis, in quib[us] Christ[us] pass[us] est: que religiose a Christianis obseruata, etiam n[um] venerationi habent [1584–1588]

Rather than a birds eye view, this depiction is more of a pictorial map, showing the facades of buildings placed adjacent to the streets and not drawn in perspective. As the extended title indicates, the map was compiled by Adrichem, a Dutch theologian and cartographer, to depict Jerusalem at the time of Christ.

The original map, with a horizontal format, was oriented with west at top. The map was later rotated to a vertical format, placing north at the top. The map presents an imaginary conception of the city, with many buildings depicted as 16th century European structures. In addition there are 270 numbered and captioned scenes, showing sites or events mentioned in the Bible and other historical texts. Many record events surrounding the life and crucifixion of Jesus, but a few date back even further.