Cartography - Archive of Exhibitions Which Closed in 2020


Please see Cartography - Calendar of Exhibitions for a current calendar of exhibitions.
Click here for archive of past exhibitions.


May 10, 2019 - July 7, 2019 and September 13, 2019 - January 5, 2020 - Little Rock, Arkansas
Acansa to Arkansas: Maps of the Land, chronicling changes in Arkansas place names, population demographics and geography via maps from 1722 until early statehood, can be seen at Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.



September 20, 2019 – January 5, 2020 – Alpine, Texas
Five Centuries of Mexican Maps, selected maps from the Museum of the Big Bend’s Yana & Marty Davis Map Collection, can be seen in the Museum of the Big Bend. The Museum is located on the Sul Ross State University campus.



September 27, 2019 - January 5, 2020 - Lethbridge, Alberta
Created by the Cushing Memorial Library & Archives at Texas A&M University, Worlds Imagined: The Maps of Imaginary Places Collections invites visitors of all ages to explore the intersections between maps, fantasy literature and popular culture. Of course, not all maps show places that exist, or ever have existed anywhere on Earth. From maps of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary Middle-earth, to the Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter’s universe, explore a variety of imaginary worlds from literature, games, film and other media at the Galt Museum & Archives, 502 1 St S.



September 25, 2019 - January 7, 2020 - Paris
Quand les artistes dessinaient les cartes / Vues et figures de l'espace français, Moyen Âge et Renaissance [When artists drew maps / Views and Figures of French Space, Middle Ages and Renaissance] can be seen in National Archives Paris site - Hôtel Soubise, 60, rue des Francs-Bourgeois. The exhibition features views of French space in the middle ages and Renaissance. These views are spectacular: manuscript, painted on parchment, sometimes very large (some are more than 5 meters long), they are finely drawn, nicely colored, abundantly annotated , undeniably picturesque. They were made by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Bernard Palissy, and Jean Cousin.



October 7, 2019 - January 18, 2020 – Durham, England
Rare maps, including one of the few first editions of what is regarded as the the world’s first modern atlas, is on show at Durham Cathedral, as well a number charting the city and surrounding area. Mapping the World is a chance for people to explore an extraordinary range of rare and exquisite maps, charts and atlases from the Durham Cathedral Library collections.



October 25, 2019 - January 19, 2020 – Cincinnati
An exhibition exploring the cultures of Spain and Latin America across 4,000 years can be seen in the Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Dr. Treasures of the Spanish World is organized in partnership with the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, which has loaned its extensive collection of Spanish and Latin American art and artifacts for the show while its building in New York undergoes renovation. Among the works are rare early maps of the Americas, Copper Age ceramics, Colombian lacquerware, Renaissance sculpture and portraits from artists such as Velázquez and Goya. Many of the works have not been exhibited outside of the Hispanic Society, and some have never before been exhibited.



September 21, 2019 - January 20, 2020 - San Marino, California
The year 1919 was significant for so many reasons but none would affect the art scene and cultural life of the San Gabriel Valley more than the founding of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. And we have Henry and Arabella Huntington to thank for bestowing on us their incomparable legacy. An exhibition called Nineteen Nineteen, at the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, showcases 275 items from Henry and Arabella Huntington’s vast collections, some of which have never been displayed. The thread that ties them all together is that they were all acquired in 1919. In January 1919, President Woodrow Wilson and Allied heads of state gathered at the Paris Peace Conference to make new maps of a changed world. The carving up of ancient empires created new nations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Africa, while regional promoters published maps to highlight Southern California’s capacity for growth. High above Los Angeles – at the Mount Wilson Observatory – the world’s largest telescope was on a nightly quest to chart the universe. In a world turned upside down, maps offered a welcome measure of predictability. What the charting of territory that occurred that year meant and its resulting significance are explored in the ‘Maps’ section. On view is a first edition of ‘Traite de Paix,’ the Treaty of Peace signed at Versailles on June 29,1919, with a map showing new territorial configurations; an album of autograph signatures gathered at the Paris Peace Conference by T.E. Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia; rare maps depicting population, transportation, and demographic data in Los Angeles and the nation at the time; and original astronomical photographs of the moon and constellations.



April 19, 2019 - January 26, 2020 – Belfast
Maps show and describe the shape of our world. They are products of reason, technology and invention, powered by artistry and ambition. Purpose and Portrayal: Early Irish Maps and Mapmaking, at the Ulster Museum, Botanic Court, draws on the Ulster Museum’s rich collection of historic maps to explore how the shape and definition of Ireland has been refined and represented over the centuries. It includes representations of Ireland by two of the sixteenth century’s greatest map makers, Abraham Ortelius and Gerard Mercator. Also featured are maps by John Speed and examples of early seacharts. The exhibition closes with two very different anthropomorphic maps of Ireland, drawn by Lilian Lancaster in the mid-nineteenth century.



October 3, 2019 - February 21, 2020 - Ithaca, New York
The PJ Mode Collection is a collection of “persuasive” cartography: more than 800 maps intended primarily to influence opinions or beliefs - to send a message - rather than to communicate geographic information. Highlights from the collection can be seen in the exhibition Latitude: Persuasive Cartography from the PJ Mode Collection at the Kroch Rare Book Library, Cornell University Library.



September 10, 2019 - February 2020 - Coral Gables, Florida
It is 228 miles away from Miami, but many here can feel its allure. Its stately Old World architecture, wide plazas and paseos, its lively sea wall and romantic ambiance has inspired hundreds of artists, writers, poets and architects to capture its streets, its people and its sounds. La Habana, or Havana. This inimitable city will be 500 years old this November. To celebrate the momentous occasion, the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection, the School of Architecture and the Center for Urban and Community Design collaborated to present Havana500: Five Centuries of Evolving Urban Form and Urban Codes.” The exhibit, in the Cuban Heritage Center, Otto G. Richter Library, 1300 Memorial Drive, will highlight some of the most treasured holdings of the Cuban Heritage Collection, including precious maps of Cuba and the capital, hung in chronological order, as well as exquisite colonial drawings by Frederic Mialhe Toussaint, a French illustrator who visited Havana in the early 1800s, alongside more recent photographs as well as oral histories.



July 5, 2019 – March 8, 2020 – Oxford
Talking Maps is the summer exhibition at Weston Library, University of Oxford. Talking Maps brings together an extraordinary collection of ancient, pre-modern and contemporary maps in a range of media as well as showcasing fascinating imaginary, fictional and war maps. The exhibition will explore how maps are neither transparent objects of scientific communication, nor baleful tools of ideology, but rather proposals about the world that help people to understand who they are by describing where they are. Additional details from Nick Millea <nick.millea(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk>.



January 18, 2020 - March 8, 2020 – London
The Museum of Wimbledon, 22 Ridgway, Wimbledon, has a has a small exhibition of maps drawn from its collection: Mapping Merton: Where do you think you are? It may be of interest to those who have connections with SW London. The exhibition is open Saturdays 2.30pm to 5pm; Sundays 12pm to 5pm. For anyone who would like to see the exhibition but cannot make the weekends, please contact Jim Caruth <jim.caruth(at)gmail.com>, Maps Curator, Museum of Wimbledon, and he might be able to arrange some private viewings on weekdays.



November 22, 2019 - March 15, 2020 – Edinburgh
The largest exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci work to be seen in Scotland can be seen in The Queen’s Gallery. The exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, marks the 500th anniversary of the death of the Renaissance master. The 80 drawings have been together as a group since the artist’s death in 1519, and entered the Royal Collection during the reign of Charles II, around 1670. The exhibition also includes a good example of his cartographic skill in "A Map of Imola" (1502), "A Map of the Valdichiana" (c.1503–6) and "The Arno Valley with the route of a proposed canal" (c.1503–4).



December 18, 2019 – March 15, 2020 - Hong Kong
The Qian Kun, one of the trigrams in the Yijing (Book of Changes), traditionally represents the concept of tiandi (heaven and earth) for the Chinese. Chinese understanding of the outside world was changed gradually by expeditions and exploration. During the Ming and the Qing dynasties, Western missionaries introduced new concepts and discoveries in fields such as science and cartography to China, thereby greatly influencing scientific development and China’s perception of the world. At the same time, Chinese maps and books also reached Japan and Europe, enriching the whole world’s understanding of China, and promoting the exchange of culture and knowledge. These maps and ancient books do not only record history; they also reflect the philosophies and cultures of the time. The World on Paper: From Square to Sphericity is an exhibition of maps and rare books at The Hong Kong Maritime Museum. The exhibition hopes to demonstrate the evolution of Chinese navigation and cartography, explore the changes in China’s world view and scientific knowledge, and explain cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries during the early period of modernisation (19th to 20th centuries).



September 28, 2019 - March 22, 2020 – Singapore
On Paper: Singapore Before 1867 features more than 100 items from the National Library and Archive, as well as more than 50 items borrowed from overseas institutions. The Nationaal Archief (National Archives of Netherlands) contributed early maps of Singapore. Other highlights in the exhibition include such documents as the 1819 Bute map from Scotland's Bute Archive; the earliest landward map of the British trading post and marks out the remnants of ancient settlements here. Exhibit can be seen in Gallery, Level 10 National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street.



September 21, 2019 - March 29, 2020 – Singapore
An Old New World: From the East Indies to the Founding of Singapore, 1600s–1819 can be found at the National Museum of Singapore’s exhibition galleries at the basement level. Featuring more than 220 artefacts, including 75 loaned from institutional and private collections. The 75 artefacts include personal collections from the families of Sir Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar, as well as treasures from international museums such as the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London and Rjiksmuseum in Amsterdam, Holland. As the exhibition’s title suggests, many items on display pre-date the arrival of Raffles and Farquhar. For example, there is a map of Singapore, the southern Malay peninsula and Sumatra drawn by the Ottoman scholar Katib Celebi, who lived in the 17th century in an area that is now modern Turkey. Another map on display is even older, dating back to charts drawn on the first Dutch expedition to the region in 1598.



September 28, 2019 - March 2020 - Windsor, Ontario
The Chimczuk Museum, 401 Riverside Dr W, has approximately 600 maps in its collection, ranging from copies to first editions to lithographs of original cartographs. Madelyn Dellla Valle, curator for Museum Windsor, selected 100 that she thought would be of particular interest for the exhibition Navigating our Way — Maps of Windsor and Essex County. Included is Samuel de Champlain's map of New France and Nicolas Sanson's Amerique septentrionale.



January 18, 2020 - April 12, 2020 - The Hague
The Huis van het boek, Prinsessegracht 30, will exhibit The atlas of Blaeu: A World Book. The atlas is one of the absolute masterpieces of Huis van het boek and the pinnacle of Dutch seventeenth-century printing. The 'Great Atlas', published between 1662 and 1665, is known as the most beautiful atlas ever made. The House of the book copy is exceptionally beautiful because all cards have been 'deposited' (colored in) by the Amsterdam master-depositor Dirck Jansz. van Santen. The atlas comes from the Utrecht professor Hadrianus Relandus (1676-1718). Baron Willem van Westreenen, the founder of the museum, acquired the atlas at the auction of the Meerman library in 1824.



June 21, 2019 – April 18, 2020 – Edinburgh
The National Library of Scotland will bring together leading intellectual, cultural, medical and scientific figures for a show that will lift the lid on the “phenomenon that changed the country’s course”. Northern Lights will recall the unprecedented “outburst” of accomplishments achieved by a diverse array of key players in the 18th century. Billed as “a showcase of the leading role Scotland took in the intellectual and scientific progress of the later 18th century”, the exhibition will feature rarely seen books, manuscripts and maps from the library’s archives.



January 30, 2020 - April 19, 2020 – Barcelona
The exhibition Mapes, país, futur: Centenari de l’exposició cartogràfica catalana (1919) can be seen in Museu d'Història de Catalunya, Plaça de Pau Vila, 3. The exhibition of more than sixty maps of Catalonia, from the 17th century to 1919, is organized by the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC) in collaboration with the Center Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC), the History Museum of Catalonia (MHC) and with the sponsorship of Hitachi. The centenary of the exhibition organized by the CEC in 1919 is commemorated, and many of the maps are the same as those displayed at that time.



December 11, 2019 - May 1, 2020 - Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Harvard Map Collection welcomes you to our exhibition, Building Boston, Shaping Shorelines. This exhibition allows you to trace the projects to reclaim land and build the infrastructure that has produced a city out of a peninsula. Come learn how much of Boston is on man-made land and what impacts that has had and will have on the city. The exhibition will be on view in the gallery on the first floor of the Pusey Library.



October 25, 2019 – May 2, 2020 - Hartford, Connecticut
War, Maps, Mystery: Dutch Mapmaker Bernard Romans and the American Revolution can be seen in the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library, 1 Elizabeth Street. A new exhibit shares the little-known story of Revolutionary War Patriot and mapmaker Bernard Romans. Romans came to the American colonies in 1757 during the French and Indian War, surveying for the British along the Atlantic seaboard. Romans became a supporter of American independence, joined the Continental Army, and eventually settled in Wethersfield, CT. Both the British and Americans used Romans’ maps during the American Revolution. In 1780, he was captured by the British and died in 1784, mysteriously, while a prisoner. Incredibly rare maps from the CHS collection, published by Romans and his contemporaries, as well as earlier Connecticut maps from the 17th and 18th centuries, will be displayed.



November 13, 2019 – May 10, 2020 - Boston
The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., has an exhibition America Transformed: Mapping the 19th Century - Part II (Homesteads to Modern Cities: Mapping America 1862-1900).



March 1, 2020 - May 25, 2020 – Houston
If they gave an award for most epic art exhibition, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s presentation Glory of Spain: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library would definitely win for the season, if not the year. Spanning 4,000 years and containing more than 200 glorious objects – including paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, maps, textiles, porcelains, ceramics, metalwork and jewelry – the exhibition holds a rare concentration of beauty and history in one place. Cartographic treasures include the famous" Map of the World" (1526) by Juan Vespucci; "Portolan Atlas of the World" (Venice, ca. 1550) by Battista Agnese; and the "Portolan Atlas of the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Atlantic" (Messina, 1582) by Joan Martines.



November 7, 2019 – May 29, 2020 – Florence The Global Eye. Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese Maps in the Collections of the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici can be seen in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Piazza San Lorenzo, 9.



March 4, 2020 - May 31, 2020 – Madrid
The Community of Madrid has opened the exhibition Madrid: three centuries of cartography. The exhibition can be seen, free of charge, in the Exhibition Hall of the El Águila Complex, Calle de Ramírez de Prado, 3. More than 60 maps from 1623 to the 20th century show the development of the city of Madrid.



January 2020 - May 2020 - Brunswick, Maine
Maine had a long and complicated path to statehood, and becoming the 23rd state 200 years ago brought its fair share of growing pains. State of Maine, an exhibit on display through this spring at Bowdoin College’s Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, 5 College St., explores those triumphs and tribulations with maps, books and other rare and historic items culled from the college’s archives. Maps focuse on the shape of Maine. While the southern border with New Hampshire was concrete, the northeast boundary with New Brunswick, then a British Canadian province, was left unclear by the 1783 Treaty of Paris that had settled the American Revolution. Maps from 1794 and 1814 show differing views on where that line between the two countries should be drawn, and a handwritten letter on the issue from Samuel Smith, Maine’s 10th governor, to Edward Kavanagh, the 17th, is also on display.



May 2020 - East Hartford, Connecticut
In conjunction with the Historical Society of East Hartford, the East Hartford Public Library, 840 Main Street, will be hosting an exhibit of maps and postcards of East Hartford in May, that showcase the town’s rich history and development over time. Both organizations will draw from their collections to highlight some of their respective treasures. These maps and postcards demonstrate how the town has evolved from a small farming village to an industrial center. Viewers will see how a small Podunk summer settlement became farmland, then tobacco fields, to present-day suburban development and industrial strength. The exhibit may be viewed during the library’s open hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 am-8 pm; Friday-Saturday, 9 am-5pm.



January 20, 2020 - June 2020 - Madison, New Jersey
New Jersey's beautiful landscape offers its residents many reasons to celebrate. From the Great Swamp, to the coastal Jersey Shore, to the mountain ranges, our state's scenery is diverse and eclectic. But how have people come to learn and understand this land over time? Museum of Early Trades & Crafts' Main Gallery exhibit, Surveying the New Jersey Landscape, will feature historic maps, surveying tools, and other accounts that provide us with a unique lens through which we can better understand and honor our relationship to this precious land. Museum is located at 9 Main Street.



November 23, 2019 - August 2, 2020 - Austin, Texas
The Frank and Carol Holcomb Map Collection consists primarily of Texas maps spanning from 1513 to 1904. With an emphasis on color and rarity, the maps are both art and historical images. Collectors' Gallery: The Frank and Carol Holcomb Map Collection exhibition focuses on landmark maps of Texas from 1646 to 1874, with the bulk of material showing the explosive growth of the region from 1830 to 1851, when Texas sovereignty changed three times in only 21 years. Exhibit can be seen at the Bullock Museum, 1800 Congress Ave.



February 2020 - August 21, 2020 - Athens, Georgia
Paving the Road to Progress: Georgia Interstate Highways is now on display in the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies’ gallery, 300 S Hull Street. It traverses the rocky path of the interstate system’s development, which cost far more and took much longer than predicted. The exhibition examines the tension between motorists, landowners, politicians and the State Highway Department through artifacts, including historic maps, reports, correspondence and legislation. Political cartoons, pamphlets and posters reveal the cultural impact of interstate travel.



July 31, 2020 - September 1, 2020- La Porte, Indiana
A new exhibit on loan from the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis puts the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum on the map. The museum at 2405 Indiana Ave. will display the cartography-themed Indiana Through the Mapmaker's Eye. Maps on display will include an 1833 tourist's Indiana pocket map, a 1913 Sanborn Company Bloomington fire insurance map, an 1881 bird's-eye view of Mount Vernon, Indiana, and a late 19th-century scale-model map of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend.



Closed September 2020 - Raleigh, North Carolina
Capital Cartography: A History of Raleigh in Maps can be seen at the City of Raleigh Museum, 220 Fayetteville Street. This exhibit showcases over two hundred years of Raleigh’s development through a collection of historic maps. Looking at maps as more than way finding tools, visitors experience cartography as a reflection of the times and the draftsmen who crafted them. The exhibit features 14 maps that reflect over 200 years of the Capital city’s history.



May 26, 2020 – October 4, 2020 - Daytona Beach, Florida
The Museum of Arts and Sciences, 352 S Nova Road, has two cartographic exhibitions. The Evolution of Florida's Borders, in Root Hall, features rare vintage maps of our state from as far back as the 1500s. Maps came to MOAS from Dr. Armand and Suzanne Cognetta who have amassed one of the largest collections of antique maps in the country. Borders of Paradise: A History of Florida Through New World Maps, in North Wing Corridor, focuses on vintage maps from the MOAS collection that trace the history of our state from the early days of Spanish exploration in the 1500s to statehood in 1845.



July 20, 2020 - October 4, 2020 - Taipei City, Taiwan
An exhibition that sheds light on the interaction between Taiwan's ethnic Chinese and its indigenous populations during the Qing Dynasty can be seen in the National Taiwan Museum, No.2, Xiangyang Rd., Zhongzheng District. The Once Upon A Time in the Frontiers exhibition, at the museum's West Exhibition Hall on the first floor, features 93 exhibitions that include historical books, relics, and maps, including some owned by indigenous people.



September 22, 2020 - October 10, 2020 – Edinburgh
The exhibition Island Dreams / Mapping an Obsession at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, from Gavin Francis examines our collective fascination with maps and islands. The exhibition features four centuries of cartography from Scotland and the rest of the world. The maps are presented alongside excerpts from the book of the same name. Free tickets can be booked online.



March 5, 2020 - October 25, 2020 – Bern
The 500th birthday of Thomas Schöpf (1520–1577) is the occasion to appreciate the work that became known in connection with his name: Die Schöpfkarte. It is the most important early description of the area of Bern which later shaped maps for a long time. The map was not yet printed when the Bern city doctor died of the plague in 1577 at the age of 57. The 1.3x1.9 meter map was printed in two editions in 1578 and 1672. The Bibliothek Münstergasse, Münstergasse 61, will be exhibiting that map and others.



April 22, 2020 - October 2020 – Montevideo
The exhibition Imaginar, medir y ordenar. Mapas, planos y agrimensores en Uruguay [Imagine, measure and order. Maps, plans and surveyors in Uruguay] proposes a journey through the knowledge and practices of surveying and the responses to various political and social demands that allowed for the production of the displayed maps and plans. The exhibit is the result of eight months of work by a team made up of various historians at various levels of training, surveyors who teach at the University of the Republic, and technical staff from the National Historical Museum. Items on display are on loan from Graphic Archive of the Topography Directorate of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Faculty of Engineering, the National Library, the General Archive of the Nation and the National Historical Museum. The exhibition also includes items from some private collections. Exhibit can be seen in National Historical Museum, Rincón 437.



August 29, 2020 - December 19, 2020 - New Albany, Indiana
In Watershed Globe Project, open now at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 E Spring St, the Ohio River serves as the focus of cartographical investigation, whether it be via two-dimensional map, a video installation or a physical globe. The project asks us how we have understood the world — specifically, the Ohio River through its representation as a map symbol — and, in turn, how a map can maintain our relationship with our sense of place. As part of the show, it is valuable to look at the series of old maps included in the exhibit. The oldest is John Filson’s 1783 map of “Kentucke.” Two maps of Floyd County are also on display. One from 1859 shows, in sidebar images, the notable houses of the county, along with several insurance offices and a jewelry store, a none-too-subtle suggestion of what was most important in the nineteenth century and therefore what was worth mapping, just as the Culbertson Mansion is prominent on Google maps today. A later map details the Floyd County comprehensive plan from 1992.



March 10, 2020 - December 2020- Dublin
The great civilization of China has fascinated Europeans ever since the first trade encounters took place in the Middle Ages. In this exhibition, China, we look at interactions between Europe and China in the 16th and 17th centuries through texts and maps written by Westerners who lived or worked in China. Included are maps by Joan Blaeu, Martino Martini, and Samuel Purchas. This exhibition at the Marsh's Library, St Patrick's Close, received no backing from the Chinese state or from any entity associated with or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.



August 21, 2020 – December 2020 - Ticonderoga, New York
Mapping the Adirondacks is the Ticonderoga Historical Society’s first exhibit of 2020. On display will be more than 18 historically significant and beautifully crafted military, political and romance maps . Some of these maps will be on display for the first time at the Hancock House, 6 Moses Circle. New to the historical map collection, which has mostly been acquired by donation, are several antique regional maps of the Ticonderoga area.