H69.33.2

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America Setentrionale
1688
18 in HIGH x 30 in WIDE
(45.72 cm HIGH x 76.20 cm WIDE)
Museum Purchase
H69.33.2






Map. Description: Map of North America by P. Mro Coronelli Venice, 1688. (Originally identified as M.V. Coronelli Venice, 1689, but later corrected so it appears as above.) From the History Information Station: History: Do you notice anything unusual about the depiction of California in this map? It is shown as an island, a long held interpretation based on misinformation about the Gulf of California. The Gulf is an arm of the Pacific Ocean. It begins at the southern tip of Baja California and extends 700 miles to the point where the waters of the Colorado River flow into it. The Gulf was long thought to be a strait that separated the mainland of Mexico from the island of California. It was Francisco de Ulloa who proved this to be untrue. In 1539, Ulloa sailed from Acapulco up the west coast to the head of the gulf, discovering that Baja California was a peninsula, not an island.

Picture This Information

This artifact is part of the OMCA's Picture This website. More about the context and history of this artifact is available at Picture This.

About the Picture This web project: California's Perspectives on American History is a resource for teachers and students to learn about the experiences of diverse peoples of California by using primary source images from the Oakland Museum of California's collections. Organized into 11 time periods spanning from pre-1769 to the present, more than 300 photographs, drawings, posters, and prints tell stories from the perspectives of different ethnic groups. Historical contexts are provided to offer a framework of California's role in relation to American history.

The National Archives state that primary sources, "fascinate students because they are real and they are personal: history is humanized through them." Picture This invites students to examine the historical record, encouraging them to connect history with real people and explore how images tell stories and convey historical evidence about the human experience. History becomes more than just a series of facts, dates, and events.      

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