1 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:14,520 The British Library in London is home to a staggering 4.5 million maps. 2 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,240 Mysterious and beautiful, these rarely seen treasures are much 3 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:24,240 more than just two dimensional depictions of a physical world. 4 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,960 Among its most quixotic, strange and colourful treasures 5 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,840 are the world's first mass produced satirical maps, 6 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:40,360 maps that used country boundaries to reinforce national stereotypes. 7 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,600 The form of a country, the map of a country, 8 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,400 can have an enormous emotive force. 9 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:53,680 Visually striking, poking fun at the high and mighty, 10 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,200 at countries and their leaders, these maps came from a time 11 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,280 when nations were still working out who they were. 12 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:06,640 People were asking, what does it mean to be British? 13 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:08,600 What does it mean to be French? 14 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,360 What does it mean to be German or Italian? 15 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,200 These extraordinary maps did more than just poke fun. 16 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:20,720 They made politics visual. 17 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,440 They helped create national identity. 18 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:25,840 And they ushered in a modern world 19 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,840 where mass media and political spin went hand in hand. 20 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:54,520 Europe in the 1870's was a place of political tension. 21 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:59,520 Countries vied with one another for territory and influence. 22 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,240 Nationalism was on the rise. 23 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,760 Nationalism was a movement which grew out of the Napoleonic wars. 24 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:09,760 The countries which had laboured 25 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:16,440 under Napoleonic rule emerged from this period 26 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:24,320 with a distinct desire to have an identity of their own. 27 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:26,320 And to defend that identity. 28 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,040 For Britain, it was the great era of maps. 29 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:40,000 The Ordnance Survey was mapping the nation in almost microscopic detail. 30 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,080 While the Empire and wars in Europe made maps indispensable 31 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:47,800 for understanding Britain and its place in the world. 32 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,880 By that time the shapes of Europe, in particular, 33 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,440 were pretty well known. 34 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:57,480 The 19th century had seen a huge explosion in map availability. 35 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,040 Papers were full of maps, books were full of maps, 36 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:03,520 atlases were getting published. 37 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,920 The base of knowledge about the shape of our lands, 38 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:09,680 and all the rest of it, was already there. 39 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,040 One British Map maker, Frederick Rose, 40 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,920 was determined to give that knowledge a whole new twist. 41 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:26,160 In 1877, he made the first of the world's mass-produced satire maps. 42 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,000 They impart opinion and information all at the same time, 43 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:36,000 in a way that is visually very striking and quite beautiful. 44 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,680 They are very much a product of their age. 45 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,680 Rose was doing these maps at the zenith of the British Empire. 46 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,440 And it shored up the Victorian sense 47 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,360 of who we are and our place in the world. 48 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:56,240 Entitled, A Serio-Comic Map Of Europe For The Year 1877, 49 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:00,200 Rose's map captures a moment of anxiety for Europe. 50 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,520 The so-called Eastern question, 51 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:08,160 the fear of Russia, pictured as a giant octopus. 52 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:14,480 The map was meant to inform, to entertain, and to shock. 53 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:15,640 And it still does. 54 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,640 We know exactly how people responded to it visually 55 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:22,000 because people are continuing to respond to it visually. 56 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,680 There's the case of the Russian academic recently, 57 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:30,600 who was incandescent with rage at the fact that it had been reproduced 58 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:35,200 because he felt that the use of an octopus to portray his country 59 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,600 was a monstrous distortion of the true nature of his country. 60 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:45,280 This map has been insulting people, and amusing people in equal measure, 61 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:47,160 for the last 130 years. 62 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:53,600 The tentacles of the Russian octopus stretch out 63 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:57,920 over the much of the continent with an alarming and malign reach. 64 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,920 So all of it links together in some way and, really, 65 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,800 what you have are a series of interlinked narratives, 66 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,360 linking up with each other right the way across. 67 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,240 Moving over the whole is the Russian octopus, 68 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,080 with tentacles going out in every direction. 69 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:18,120 The idea of the octopus does seem to be Rose's own, as far as I know. 70 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,720 I've seen earlier depictions of Russia as a bear 71 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,840 or as a ravening wolf in caricature maps like this 72 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:26,720 going back to the Crimean War. 73 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:32,160 But as soon as you're looking at the detail and Rose's opinion 74 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,000 of what's going on in various countries in Europe at the time, 75 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:37,520 you're sucked right in. 76 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:43,320 Rose uses the physical shape of each nation 77 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:45,800 to create a cartoon stereotype. 78 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:54,200 Here's a grumpy looking Ireland with 'home rule' on her mind. 79 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:56,000 Italy is a young woman, 80 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:00,960 because the nation had only been in existence for a few years. 81 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,920 Germany is a fierce looking Prussian, armed to the teeth. 82 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:10,160 Spain, indifferent to events in Europe, is asleep. 83 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,560 But it's that grey menace of the octopus that dominates. 84 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:22,000 This image gave, if you like, the opponents of Russia a focus. 85 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,320 For instance, it's strangling Poland. 86 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:26,440 Poland then formed part of Russia. 87 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:29,560 It's in the process of strangling Bulgaria. 88 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,920 And it was, in fact, the Russian invasion of Bulgaria 89 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:37,840 that provoked the great crisis which very nearly led to a First World War 90 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:41,400 something like 30 years before it actually occurred. 91 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:51,160 It is such a convenient thing because people do recognise their own country. 92 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:56,400 The form of a country, the map of a country, 93 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,720 can have an enormous emotive force. 94 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:03,120 It resonates. 95 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:09,360 It's a time of great political upheaval and uncertainty, 96 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,400 and I suppose a slight lightness of touch 97 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,760 is a good way of bringing that home to people. 98 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:21,800 It's not only the octopus that's important. 99 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:24,680 You've got other little side scenes. 100 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,960 For instance, one very small touch is that the Turkish Empire 101 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:33,200 is shown as a Turk who lies prostrate beneath the octopus, 102 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,880 and the golden watch of the Turk is Constantinople 103 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:42,280 which everybody thought was the main objective of Russia's expansion. 104 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,520 If you look, even in small detail at Belgium, 105 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,760 you've got the King of Belgium, Leopold II, 106 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:53,840 who was making a fortune out of running the Congo as its private fief. 107 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,320 And he's there, counting his money. 108 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:58,080 So, wherever you look at the map, 109 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,760 you have references to the current situation. 110 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:03,440 Even if, thanks to the mastery of the design, 111 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:07,200 the eye is at first drawn to the main conflict, which is Russia. 112 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:15,720 It's really clearly seen in the map itself that tension was building up in Europe. 113 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,320 For example, France is checking its weapons, 114 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,000 getting ready for something. 115 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,400 Austria-Hungary, the big empire, 116 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:25,600 actually you can see that Hungary 117 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,160 is depicted as a man who is really getting angry, 118 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:30,920 he wants to get at Russia. 119 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:35,000 Who is held back by a young woman, Austria. 120 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,760 You can actually see that everybody is getting ready for something 121 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:41,440 but they are not quite sure what will come next. 122 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:48,160 For Rose's audience, this was map and news bulletin rolled into one. 123 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,200 And the British viewer could gain comfort 124 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:54,000 from the stalwart figure of John Bull. 125 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,560 Resolute, solid and reliable. 126 00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:02,840 Often, when all the other characters representing all the other countries 127 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,280 are scrapping and fighting, or kipping on the job, John Bull, 128 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:08,040 up there in the top left corner, 129 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,720 is always looking remarkable and in full control of everything. 130 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:17,480 On all his maps, we're always looking terribly smug and... 131 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:21,200 gazing benignly on the rest of the unfortunates 132 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:25,000 in the world, who haven't have the good grace to be born British. 133 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,440 Rose's work was revolutionary. 134 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,880 He made politics visual through maps. 135 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:41,520 He defined national stereotypes. 136 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,640 And for the first time in Britain's history, 137 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:48,840 he brought the world of political satire to a mass audience. 138 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,200 It was a breakthrough in printing technology 139 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,200 that made it all possible. 140 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,040 We could almost call this the first map for the masses, 141 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,560 because its produced using chroma-lithography 142 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:01,440 which had two important features. 143 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:06,120 First of all, it was produced en masse, almost infinite copies could be produced. 144 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:09,440 Secondly, it could be produced in colour. 145 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:11,320 It cost virtually nothing. 146 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,800 It quite literally spread like wildfire 147 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:17,400 and it had an enormous impact. 148 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:23,520 In the 1870's, 149 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:27,800 there were 250 lithographic printers in London alone. 150 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:31,640 Today, this Victorian warehouse in south London 151 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:35,520 is home to one of the last remaining traditional printers 152 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:37,320 in the whole of Britain. 153 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:39,720 Using the same lithography process 154 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:42,400 that was used to make the Rose original, 155 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:46,280 Megan Fishpool and Colin Gale are printing the octopus map, 156 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:49,720 probably the first to be printed in over a century. 157 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,640 In the years before Rose, each colour element had to be 158 00:10:55,640 --> 00:11:00,480 laboriously drawn out and printed from cumbersome stone plates. 159 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,840 But photography had transformed the process. 160 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:07,080 Historically, this is right at the cross over point 161 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:11,640 where they started moving from stone lithography to plate lithography. 162 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:13,280 Plates have got the advantage. 163 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:15,320 Obviously, they're cheaper, lighter, 164 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:17,120 more portable and faster to print. 165 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:24,120 What we've got here, it's the modern day equivalent, it's photo sensitive aluminium. 166 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:27,640 The plate's been exposed using ultraviolet light 167 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:30,640 to a drawing which is made on clear acetate. 168 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,920 I'm pouring on liquid developer and literally developing out the image. 169 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,400 While the plates are being prepared 170 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:48,480 to be printed, you mix the colour. 171 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:55,000 There are four colours and a black in this particular image. 172 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:00,160 And all of the colours are actually made by hand from scratch. 173 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:06,960 To our 21st century eyes, the process may look laborious, 174 00:12:06,960 --> 00:12:12,760 but in 1877 this was right at the cutting edge of new technology. 175 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,640 Basically, it evolved the concept of quantity. 176 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:23,280 And so, a couple of printers working together could print 177 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:29,160 a phenomenal amount of imagery in very short period of time. 178 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,760 This is the plate for the main body of the octopus. 179 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:39,960 Which is going to be printed in a transparent grey. 180 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:44,160 We need a separate plate for each image, and each colour is printed separately. 181 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,160 All the pinks are printed and all the yellows are printed, 182 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:48,520 all the blues are printed, 183 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:50,560 and that's the way the image is built up. 184 00:12:50,560 --> 00:12:53,200 Five plates in total for this particular picture. 185 00:12:56,080 --> 00:13:00,200 The new process took advantage of two burgeoning technologies. 186 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:04,080 One was photography, allowing plates to be made without drawing. 187 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,920 The other was chemistry. 188 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:10,200 Lithography is very simple chemistry. 189 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:12,440 It's the fact that oil and water don't mix. 190 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,360 The image is greasy and attracts ink. 191 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:20,720 And the non-image area is kept damp and repels the greasy ink. 192 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:29,360 Colour printing would've been very, very expensive, 193 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,520 only open to rich people. 194 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:35,840 This is a way of reaching the mass market very, very cheaply, very, very quickly. 195 00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:02,320 High volume and low cost brought maps like Rose's to a new audience. 196 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,840 It also revolutionised the map business. 197 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:08,320 Previously, mapmakers took huge financial risks 198 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:12,080 producing their costly product, and often went bust. 199 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:20,040 Rose's maps proved hugely popular, and highly profitable for his publisher G. W. Bacon. 200 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:23,720 George W. Bacon was actually known 201 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:28,280 for making maps of London and the surroundings, 202 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,000 for example, for biking trips. 203 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:36,440 But then, on the side, he decides to start publishing these cartoon maps. 204 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:38,720 I think he was a rather wily businessman 205 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:44,720 because after the first map of Frederick Rose in 1877 was published, 206 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:50,280 fairly quickly after that there was a second edition of the map already in the same year. 207 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:54,000 It sort of gives us a clue that there was business in these kinds of maps. 208 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:00,840 I can imagine Bacon taking the most immense pleasure 209 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,720 in putting these cartoon maps in the window of his shop 210 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:08,160 because he liked eye-catching, and those certainly are. 211 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,960 And I think that is what Bacon is about. 212 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:13,480 It is about mass appeal, 213 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:17,400 selling maps to people who didn't even know they wanted maps. 214 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:22,200 Satire maps were sold on street corners, 215 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,920 they appeared in newspapers, in schools, in offices, 216 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:27,320 in ordinary homes. 217 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:34,120 What had once been costly, luxury items were now throwaway objects in a mass market. 218 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,880 The modern world of map publishing had begun. 219 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:40,960 It's always quite exciting as a printmaker. 220 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:43,440 We've got all the colour layers down now 221 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:47,960 and until you put the final black layer on, you don't know what it's going to look like. 222 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:53,840 It's always kind of a magic moment, just peeling it off and seeing the final result for the first time. 223 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:05,360 There you go. Beautiful. Spot-on register. 224 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:08,000 Perfect. 225 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:17,480 In the spring of 1880, 226 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:23,120 Rose turned his sharp-edged, satirical lens on British politics. 227 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:27,080 It was general election time, with the Liberals 228 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:31,360 seeking to topple a Tory government that many saw as corrupt, 229 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:33,520 warmongering and dishonest. 230 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:42,880 Uniquely, Rose produced two satire maps, one for each party. 231 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:48,000 The maps have lain in the British Library's basement for well over a century 232 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:52,160 and were only recently rediscovered by Peter Barber. 233 00:16:53,280 --> 00:17:00,640 Part of the fun of being a curator is that you do have almost unrestricted access to your collections. 234 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:04,400 I mean, there is nothing more exciting than going through a file of maps 235 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:09,800 and seeing something you've never seen before and you're pretty sure that nobody else has seen before. 236 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:15,360 It really is great to find something that is really new, 237 00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:20,280 and to look at the expressions of surprise on faces of people who equally have never seen them. 238 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:25,760 And, sometimes, the things can be really, really important because they can change perceptions. 239 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:29,080 They can provide evidence which previously had been lacking. 240 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,560 Rose's octopus maps are very familiar and, as you can see, 241 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:39,280 he's signed his name down here, 242 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:41,520 well, under his signature, Fred W. Rose, 243 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,960 we've got the "Author of the Octopus Map of Europe". 244 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,160 It's absolutely lovely to see something completely fresh and completely new. 245 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,400 And I know it's been lying in the vaults of the British Library 246 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,560 for the last 130 years or so, but I'd never seen them before. 247 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,320 I had never even seen these reproduced 248 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:00,240 in any publications. 249 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,640 In the pro-Conservative image, Disraeli, the Prime Minister, 250 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:08,880 is a heroic figure, 251 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,160 stabbing his enemies with the sword of patriotism. 252 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:18,040 In the pro-Liberal map, Rose turns it all around. 253 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:20,520 This time, Gladstone is the hero, 254 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,160 while Disraeli is depicted as a corrupt despot, 255 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,480 his subservient cabinet kneeling at his feet. 256 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:30,200 Here you've got King Jingo, 257 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:35,080 Benjamin Disraeli, being unseated, but it's interesting to see what he's being unseated by. 258 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:38,760 And it's something which echoes right the way down to the present time. 259 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:40,960 You've got here "broken promises". 260 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,800 You've got there "harassed interests", 261 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:45,560 and finally, and most important, 262 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,280 "public opinion", which is unseating him. 263 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,520 If you notice carefully, he's sitting on top of the ballot box. 264 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:55,160 It's a marvellous allegory of the electoral process, 265 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,080 very, very well portrayed. 266 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:03,560 The burning issues of the election have an eerily contemporary ring to them. 267 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:07,320 Britain was fighting a prolonged war in Afghanistan. 268 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:12,040 And the national debt was at its highest in living memory. 269 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,440 You have the comment that Gladstone, who's depicted as a Highlander, 270 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,760 has taken on some clothes and some arms, 271 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,520 which he has taken from the stiffening corpses 272 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:23,720 of English soldiers in Afghanistan. 273 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:27,240 We have the references to public expenditure. 274 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:31,320 And also to the general economic state of the country 275 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:35,000 because you do get this mention of public debt de profundis. 276 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,520 And at the moment, if that isn't a key question, nothing is. 277 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,080 It's a marvellous way of dramatising issues 278 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,600 which are matters of debate, and dramatising them in a way, 279 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:51,080 with a clarity which a verbal debate or a written debate 280 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,680 can't really bring to the fore. 281 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,640 Rose's legacy lives on today, 282 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,240 in the work of graphic artists like Peter Brookes, 283 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,360 political cartoonist at The Times. 284 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:15,080 Political cartoons are odd things anyway, to be honest. 285 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:16,960 A political cartoon to me, 286 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:18,760 a definition of it, 287 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,200 is kneeing somebody in the groin with a smile, if you like. 288 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:29,600 There are so many instances of things that other people have done 289 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:33,600 that lodge in your subconscious. You're aware of them. 290 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:40,920 You like them. You like what Rose does because it's within your professional territory, so to speak. 291 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:43,600 It's the same sort of thing as you do. 292 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:57,040 You have to be able to recognise symbols, 293 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,080 which your general reader can be familiar with. 294 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:05,200 And maps, if anything, are symbols. 295 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,080 Before Rose, there were people producing maps, 296 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:13,080 political commentary through maps, like Gillray. 297 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:19,400 And a particular one I love which is George III and the Bum-Boats, 298 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:23,200 where George III is defecating the fleet against the French. 299 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:29,480 A wonderful image. So wonderfully scatological, so vulgar, 300 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,880 it makes you laugh just because it is, you know! 301 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:37,560 It appeals to my ribald sense of humour, if you like. 302 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:43,000 And you laugh, but the point behind it, when you're fighting France, 303 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,240 is obviously serious as well. 304 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,680 Peter Brookes' own work owes much to Gillray and Rose, 305 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,680 a mark of the abiding political power of the satire map. 306 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:03,320 This Spectator cover, again uses that familiar shape of Britain. 307 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:08,400 And the article was about, as you can read there, 308 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,680 "Yobland, Our Yobland." 309 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,400 The idea of Wales being the 2 hands, 310 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:17,320 Norfolk's his bum, obviously, and his trainers, 311 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,880 you can manage to make the outline of the West Country. 312 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:26,800 The only thing I think is wrong about it 313 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:30,360 is that Ireland really doesn't have a great deal to do with that. 314 00:22:30,360 --> 00:22:34,960 But to make it work, as a yob kicking an old lady, 315 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:41,080 I'm afraid Ireland was used for that purpose. 316 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,240 Well, I drew this for The Times immediately after 317 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,040 the Continuity IRA murdered a policeman, 318 00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:53,720 having previously murdered two British soldiers 319 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,120 a short while before that. 320 00:22:56,120 --> 00:23:01,000 And the idea was to show the Good Friday Agreement 321 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,520 being shot to ribbons, basically. 322 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:09,840 The outline of Ireland, it's a familiar image to people, you hope. 323 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,920 And the shape is what does it. 324 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,960 And then putting bullet-holes in with it as well, 325 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,560 and the burn marks round it. 326 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:20,680 To make up the idea. 327 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,200 You may think, "Well, because they've been around for a long time, 328 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,320 "what possible sort of... 329 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,560 "enjoyment can come out of trotting out the same old stuff?" 330 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,320 But it's not the same old stuff. 331 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,440 First of all, the political situation is always different, by definition. 332 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,280 And you're using the constant shape of something 333 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:46,240 which people are familiar with. 334 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,000 That makes it a different challenge, I think. 335 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,960 Political crisis is also the subject of Rose's last satire map. 336 00:23:57,960 --> 00:23:59,200 Made in 1899, 337 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:05,680 Angling In Troubled Waters depicts growing tensions in Europe. 338 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,080 In 1914, those tensions erupted 339 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,160 into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen. 340 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:18,120 With war, satire maps took on a more savage tone than Rose had ever used. 341 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,760 But his legacy shines through. 342 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,160 Here's the octopus, his great creation, 343 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:29,880 at the heart of a brooding anti-German French map of 1917. 344 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:37,080 This vicious Russian satire map used the "hunger spider" 345 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,040 to show the invidious influence of Russia's churches 346 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:41,640 on the flagging revolution. 347 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,040 And this map brings the story full circle. 348 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:49,320 Made in 1941, 349 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:54,880 the fascists of Vichy France savagely turned Rose's octopus idea 350 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:56,960 against Britain itself. 351 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:06,720 Well, this is an Axis cartoon 352 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,600 attacking British policy throughout the world 353 00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:11,360 during the Second World War. 354 00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:14,560 And it does so by resurrecting the octopus 355 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:18,280 that had been first seen nearly 70 years earlier. 356 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,240 And in this particular case, 357 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,920 the octopus has been turned into Winston Churchill. 358 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:29,200 The tentacles of the British octopus 359 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:35,400 are shown being cut in places which have had resonances for the French. 360 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,640 There was an allied attempt to seize Dakar in west Africa, 361 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:39,800 it didn't succeed. 362 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:42,280 There's a cut tentacle. 363 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,320 There's an attempt by the British to seize a French fleet 364 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:46,840 at Mers El-Kebir. 365 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,160 There's another tentacle that's cut. 366 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:50,560 The French caption reads, 367 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:55,160 "Confiance ses amputations se poursuivent methodiquement," 368 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,400 which means, 369 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:02,280 "Have confidence, the amputations of its tentacles 370 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,240 "are being pursued in a methodical manner." 371 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,560 In other words, "You don't need to worry, 372 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:09,640 "soon there'll be no tentacles left 373 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,720 "and the octopus will be reduced 374 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,320 "to a dying mass of fish in Great Britain." 375 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:21,080 The image is crude and vicious. 376 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,080 All the subtlety and humour of Rose is gone. 377 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,360 This is the ultimate satire map, 378 00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:32,120 from a time when politics had become a matter of life and death. 379 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:37,040 We're used to regarding Churchill 380 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,160 as a positively good thing 381 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,680 and I think it'll come as a shock to many people 382 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:43,440 to be reminded of the time when, 383 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,680 in many parts of the world, Churchill was regarded 384 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,480 as the embodiment of everything that was evil. 385 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,520 Because the incidental detail has been omitted, 386 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,560 you also omit a lot of the humour. 387 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,760 This is a very, very stark, unwitty, 388 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,240 attack on Winston Churchill 389 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:15,000 which is not intended to provoke any happy chuckles. 390 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:21,400 It does show just how powerful a map image can be. 391 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,840 And in a way which, I think, nowadays, people will understand 392 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,880 because the rendering of the map is modern, 393 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,600 it represents the Rose idea 394 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:37,960 reduced to its most negative essence. 395 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,000 The satire map has made an extraordinary journey 396 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:47,240 over a tumultuous century-and-a-half. 397 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,720 Rose's world of Victorian technology, 398 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,920 of John Bull and Empire, may seem far-distant. 399 00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:58,200 But by combining maps, 400 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:03,080 mass media and political spin for the first time, 401 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,400 he left an enduring legacy. 402 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,160 One that testifies both to his own genius, 403 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:14,720 and to the extraordinary power, depth and beauty of maps themselves. 404 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,200 To explore the new world of digital mapping 405 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:27,080 and to find out more about the British Library Map Exhibition, 406 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:28,200 go to.. 407 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,160 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 408 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,200 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk