MUSEUMS

Maps fascinate many people because of the ability of those ancient documents to reveal stories about the past. Maps serve a variety of practical purposes — to document new discoveries, to facilitate travel, to claim land and to record military activity. As scientific and authoritative documents, maps imparted a perception of power and control over the environment. They also served as important tools for swaying public opinion when their creators carefully considered what information to include — or omit.

A new Colonial Williamsburg exhibition explores this captivating world of maps and prints in myriad detail. “More Than Meets The Eye” opens Saturday, March 26 in the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

“The exhibition takes our guests from the very earliest English attempts to settle North America through the American Revolution,” said Margaret Pritchard, Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of maps and prints. “Upon arrival, explorers and colonists began to encounter other cultures and to promote settlement of the New World. The exhibition documents changing relationships with the native population, the clash of France and Great Britain to control the North American continent and finally, victory over the British and the birth of a new nation.”

From the very first attempts to colonize the Americas, artists and mapmakers created impressions of the New World that fueled European imaginations. However, 17th- and 18th-century maps, portraits, landscapes and cartoons depicting America often asserted a European perspective that conveyed and reinforced a host of attitudes and values.

“More Than Meets The Eye” will be on view through August 2012. The Nicholas and Eleanor Chabraja Foundation funded the exhibition. The Chabrajas, of Lake Forest, Ill., have supported Colonial Williamsburg more than 30 years and are members of the Colonial Williamsburg Associates.