Royal Commonwealth Society : Navigational chart: Mattang chart or instructional form (former ref: 1927-6)

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'> One of a collection of four traditional 'stick charts' produced in the Marshall Islands archipelago, possibly in or around Jaluit Atoll; the date and makers are unknown. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> An instructional chart, characterised by symmetrical construction, with four cowrie shells present. This object was loaned to Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp between April and August 2015 for an exhibition titled 'The World in a Mirror'. It was returned to the Science Museum in 2015, and then returned to Cambridge University Library in 2025 with the other charts in the RCS collection.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Bibliography: Jan Parmentier (ed.), 'The world in a mirror: maps from the Middle Ages to the present' (exhibition catalogue, 2015), p. 125. Col. Sir Henry Lyons, F.R.S, 'The sailing charts of the Marshall Islanders: a paper read at the afternoon meeting of the Society, 14 May 1928' [and the Discussion that followed], Geographical Journal, 72/4 (Oct. 1928), 325–328. Robert Batchelor, 'Extrastate Development: Marshallese Stick Charts and the Politics of Infrastructure in the Nineteenth-Century Pacific', forthcoming (2025) chapter in De Gruyter's Yearbook on Environment, Technology and Development.</p>