Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
According to the accompanying register, this design was registered by George Shove of
Deptford, Kent, in January 1851. Shove was not a professional cartographer but an artist and
decorator. At the time of the Great Exhibition, he owned a business in London's New Oxford
Street, but within a few years the business had failed and he was imprisoned for debt. He
later became a corn merchant, as his father had been, but died in 1863, aged just 37, leaving
a widow and several children.
We believe that Shove designed his map as an aid to tourists, particularly fashionable ladies
visiting the capital for the Great Exhibition. Some people also think that it reflects a Victori-
an equivalent of the stereotype that women find it more difficult to read ordinary maps than
men do. There is no evidence that Shove attempted to produce glove-maps commercially and
this is thought to be the only surviving example. Although the engraver James Allen issued a
printed 'hand guide' supposedly based on Shove's design, that engraving bears little resemb-
lance to the original design other than the general shape of a glove.
Perhaps Shove's vision of maps in the palms of our hands was simply too advanced for
the technological possibilities of his time. Fashionable women - and men - visiting London
today can use the mapping applications on their mobile phones to find their way through un-
familiar streets.
