Celebrate 200 Years of Maps and Mapping at Harvard!
The Harvard Map Collection began in 1818 with a gift of over 5,000 maps and atlases. Coming not long after a fire had devastated the university’s library, this gift bolstered efforts to repopulate the library. Now, 100 times bigger (and hopefully at least a little wiser), the Map Collection continues to collect new maps, old maps, and geospatial data. Join us at our events in 2018 as we illuminate the stories of the maps, people, and ideas that have defined 200 years of cartography at Harvard.
- Visit our exhibition, “Follow the Map: The Harvard Map Collection at 200,” to explore the growth of the Map Collection. Or read the online catalog of the exhibition (here)!
- On view from 26 June to 27 October 2018, “Follow the Map” brings together captured Japanese maps from World War 2, hand-drawn nineteenth-century surveys of Bavaria, Early Modern atlases, and aerial photographs taken with cameras attached to pigeons to trace the network of donors, collectors, and curators who have defined the size and scope of the Harvard Map Collection. The exhibition is free and will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 and Saturdays 10-2.
- On 25 and 26 October, we will run a symposium that brings together scholars from many disciplines to think about the past and future of cartography, map collections, and the circulation of knowledge.
- Our reading room is open 10:30-4:30 Monday to Friday and is open to anyone who wishes to view or research maps.
- Tours and special events
Symposium:
Follow the Map: Reflecting on 200 Years of the Harvard Map Collection
On 25 and 26 October, the Harvard Map Collection will host a one and a half day symposium reflecting on the past and future of cartographic collections. We hope everyone from map-lovers to newcomers interested in how maps might help their research and teaching will come away inspired to use maps and geospatial data in their lives and work!
On 25 October, we will be welcoming Susan Schulten, Professor of History at the University of Denver, to give a keynote lecture followed by a reception and viewing of the exhibition.
On 26 October, four panels throughout the day will bring together scholars for conversations around the circulation of objects in the eighteenth-century Atlantic, the growth of museums and map collections, the relationship between dealers, scholars, and collectors in the history of maps, and collections as data.
More information on travel and accommodations are forthcoming! The provisional program is below.
Register here!
This symposium is made possible through the generous gift of Abby Smith Rumsey, AB Radcliffe College, MA, PhD Harvard.
Follow the Map: Provisional Program
Made possible through the generous gift of Abby Smith Rumsey, AB Radcliffe College, MA, PhD Harvard
Thursday, 25 October
3.00 p.m - 4.00 p.m. Registration, Lamont Library
4.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m. Keynote address, Lamont Forum Room, Lamont Library
Susan Schulten, Professor of History, University of Denver.
6.00 p.m. - 7.30 p.m. Reception and Exhibition Viewing, Pusey Library
Friday, 26 October (in Lamont Forum Room, Lamont Library unless otherwise noted)
8.00 a.m - 9 a.m. Registration, Lamont Library
9.00 a.m. - 9.10 a.m. Welcome
9.10 a.m. - 10.30 a.m. Eighteenth-century networks and the birth of the Harvard Map Collection
Christopher Parsons, Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern University
Thomas Knoles, Librarian Emeritus, American Antiquarian Society
Lindsay Van Tine, Reese Fellow in American Bibliography, Library Company of Philadelphia
10.30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. - 12.20 p.m. Collecting maps: historical approaches
Matthew Edney, Professor of Geography and Osher Professor in the History of Cartography, University of Southern Maine
Mary Pedley, Assistant Curator of Maps, William L. Clements Library
Neil Safier, Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director & Librarian, John Carter Brown Library
12.20 - 1.50 Lunch, Queen’s Head Pub (Basement of Memorial Hall)
1.50 p.m. - 3.10 p.m. The Ecology of the Map World: A roundtable with scholars, map dealers, and collectors
Michael Buehler, Owner, Boston Rare Maps
Barry Ruderman, Owner, Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps
Susan Schulten, Professor of History, University of Denver
Julie Sweetkind-Singer, Assistant Director of Geospatial and Cartographic Services, Stanford University
Tom Conley (moderator), Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of Romance Languages & Literature and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
3.10 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. Break
3:40 - 5.00 p.m. Roundtable: Bringing it all together: using collections as data
Patrick Florance, Director of Academic Data Services, Tufts University
Robert Nelson, Director of the Digital Scholarship Lab, University of Richmond
Deidre McCarthy, Director of Cultural Resource GIS, National Parks Service
Lex Berman, Institute Fellow, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University
Kelly O'Neill (moderator), Director of the Imperiia Project at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
5.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m. Exhibition Viewing, Pusey Library