The Mapmaker

William Smith’s battle for buried knowledge—from coal pits to the Royal Society.

In the foggy alleys of Enlightenment-era England, where coffeehouse discourses could topple the limits of human knowledge over bites of squab pudding and dinner parties could determine the course of natural history, a singular mind moved in eccentric circles, crisscrossing paths
with the aristocracy, academia, and clergy, but always forging his own, off-beaten tract. His vision was steadfastly different—a map that could show the layers of the earth. What he envisioned was not just a map, but a subterranean archive of the earth’s secrets.
Balancing between stumbling across a discovery and the manic rush of invention, Moulik reimagines William Smith’s intellectual trajectory through the landscapes that shaped him—rural austerity, industrial upheaval, scientific circles marked by class division and exclusion, and
long, labouring hours in canal routes and coal mines. The Mapmaker evaluates the cost of independent research, the ethics of ‘owning’ knowledge, and the often-overlooked private lives that underpin public contributions to human knowledge.

Reimagines the life of William ‘Strata’ Smith, a visionary geologist whose discovery of stratigraphy was overshadowed by class barriers. Explores the intersection of science, class, and exclusion in Enlightenment England, highlighting the solitary genius behind a foundational moment
in Geology. A vivid portrait of the personal costs of scientific independence, critiquing institutional gatekeeping and power.