Women and Children First: Gender, Flood and Victimhood in Story Maps of the Dutch Inundations of 1740 and 1741

This paper explores the gendered visual language of early modern Dutch flood mapping, particularly eighteenth-century flood story maps, taking Jan l’Admiral’s print of the Second Christmas Flood of 1740 and 1741 as the main case. It examines how women are depicted in flood narratives as both ‘real’ and symbolic, as both helpless victims and active saviours. This study reveals how flood story maps integrate women into contemporary disaster narratives in complex and multi-layered ways. Drawing on concepts from disaster studies, art history and media history, the paper argues that these maps served not only as geographical tools but also represented collective traumas and myths, religious messages and called for empathy and charity. Ultimately, the paper offers a framework for interpreting early modern flood cartography and deepens our understanding of their possible cultural meanings.