By relying on subtle shading and color gradients to represent a naturalistic view, Green visually undermined the certainty viewers could perceive from his representation. Since his map additionally showed far fewer features than Schiaparelli’s line-covered view, Green’s work simply appeared to be the result of a lesser observation.
The fact that Schiaparelli’s map was authoritative does not mean that it was undisputed. Schiaparelli was criticized for his artistic style and also – more vociferously – for his selection of placenames. British astronomers, in particular, expressed considerable displeasure with the way Schiaparelli had taken astronomers’ names off the map and replaced them with geographical names. The underlying subtext of this criticism was concerned with the fact that most of the surnames had been British, while the new classical-mythological names prioritized a different part of the world: the Mediterranean basin. In protesting against the wholesale change, British astronomers and their advocates engaged in vigorous and explicit nationalist discourse that rejected the scientific legitimacy of southern Europe. [13] Despite these protests, Schiaparelli maintained the upper hand, mainly because he could claim to have discovered something that no one else had seen on Mars. Once the canals were added to cartographic depictions of the Martian surface, it was clear that they would need new names. No one could dispute this, even if there was disagreement about revising the names for features already known.
It is best, then, not to think of Schiaparelli’s map as privileged or as undisputed. Rather, it was the winner in a major cartographic competition. Its influence became most clear after the 1884 confirmations of Schiaparelli’s canal observations, when astronomers throughout Europe and North America switched attention to a new competition. As lines on Mars suddenly seemed to become more visible to more viewers, astronomers rushed to find, map, and name these canals on the Martian surface. Maps of Mars exploded with new linear features and new placenames, making it impossible for British astronomers to reclaim the old nomenclature that had prioritized their names and contributions.
If we look at this in the context of cartography at the time, it is clear that a less definitive map could simply never gain authority over a more detailed map. Cartographers in the late nineteenth century were in the business of showing their geographical knowledge with certainty. It was critical for explorers, likewise, to acquire cartographic detail on their journeys as a way of protecting their status and respect. In the exploration of Africa, for instance, explorers who didn’t add anything to the map quickly lost funding. This same process played out with the maps of Mars after 1884.
