To learn more about non-current maps see Map
History / History of Cartography.
Meeting announcements can
be found at Cartography - Calendar of Meetings
and Events.
Click here for archive
of past exhibitions.
Indefinite – Amsterdam
The
National Maritime
Museum, Kattenburgerplein 1, exhibition Maps
and Marvels brings together maps, globes and atlases by Dutch
cartographers from the National Maritime Museum's world-leading
collection. This exhibition shows how the ships found their way at
sea in the Dutch Golden Age, and how these voyages defined the
way we see the world. Using rare and early maps and globes, visitors
travel to the locations that played an important role in the Dutch
history: South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, and Brazil. The
spectacular wall map of Amsterdam by Pieter Bast, dating from 1597,
forms the starting point of the exhibition.
Indefinite
– Boston
Becoming
Boston: Eight Moments in the Geography of a Changing City can
be seen in the Norman B.
Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public
Library, 700 Boylston St. The exhibition follows the changing spatial
forms of the place we now call Boston. Maps trace out the complicated
history of places, and we can use them to document geography in much
the same way that we can use diaries and letters to document
biography. In the eight cases of this exhibition, we follow the
changing spatial forms of the place we now call Boston—from
before the landscape carried that name all the way through the
struggles, clashes, and dreams that continue to reshape the city
today.
Indefinite – Bucharest
The
Muzeul Național
al Hărților și Cărții Vechi [National Museum
of Old Maps and Books], str.Londra nr.39 sector 1, opened to the
public in 2003 and is hosted in a beautiful villa built in the
1920's. The main collection of over 1000 items belonged to Professor
Adrian Năstase’s family and was donated to the Romanian
state. Numerous maps are displayed on the walls of this three story
villa.
Indefinite – Edinburgh
Treasures
of the National Library of Scotland
is a permanent exhibition of 13th- to 18th-century objects in the
library's collection which can be seen in George IV Bridge building.
Included are some of the first detailed maps of Scotland created by
Timothy Pont more than 400 years ago. The maps chart the geography of
16th-Century Scotland including details of tower houses and castles,
smaller buildings and settlements, mills and rivers and the extent of
woodland and physical features such as rivers and valleys and
mountain tops. They also mention landowners and other people.
Indefinite - Hershey,
Pennsylvania
In today’s digital world, we’ve
become accustomed to getting where we’re headed by pulling up
MapQuest or Google Maps on our phone or by using a GPS system to
guides us to our destination; however, that hasn’t always been
the case. Since the advent of automobiles, motorists have needed to
know how to get to their destination, and for many decades they
relied on paper maps. Maps were given away by local gas stations,
convenience stores, tire companies, banks, tourist bureaus, chambers
of commerce, rental car companies, and many other businesses. Many of
these businesses provided these maps as a form of advertising to get
customers to visit their attraction or gas station brand. Learn more
about this interesting collecting topic and see Remembering
Road Maps; a display with early maps right here at the AACA
Museum, Inc., 161 Museum Drive.
Indefinite - Jacksonville, Florida
The Lewis
Ansbacher Map Collection contains some 244 antiquarian maps
of Florida and Florida cities, North and South America, and the
world. It includes historical views and plates focusing on northern
Florida. Most of these maps are on permanent display in the Morris
Ansbacher Map Room on the fourth floor of the Main
Library, 303 N. Laura Street. Additional information
813-228-0097.
Indefinite - Kozani, Greece
Kozani
in the World of Maps is on display at the Municipal
Map Library housed in the recently restored Georgios
Lassanis Mansion at the center of the city. The historic Map
Library, with its roots in 17th century, keeps a small but important
collection of maps, atlases and geography books, mainly from 18th
century, referred to the period of Greek Enlightenment. For example,
a copy of the 1797 Rigas Velestinlis "Charta" as well as
the extremely rare 1800 Anthimos Gazis world map are kept there among
other maps and atlases which were never before put on public display.
Contact info(at)kozlib.gr or 2461 50635 / 2461 50632 for additional
information.
Indefinite - Kynceľová,
Slovakia
The Slovak Map
Museum, Kynceľová 77, presents you not only the rich
past and exceptional present of cartography in Slovakia, but also the
traditional and modern methods and technologies that create maps. Its
uniqueness lies not only in the content of its exhibition, but also
in its form. It was based on the principles of the global trend of
enriching experiences for visitors through interactivity, advances in
high technology and modern principles of education. What would a
museum be like without the history of cartography and old maps? We
will look at the development of maps in the world, but of course also
in Slovakia. You will also find some truly unique maps here.
Indefinite - Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin
What is believed to be an original map of Lake
Geneva — found recently inside a historic lakefront mansion —
now offers the public a rare glimpse of the city in its earliest
origins. The map from the early 1840s is part of Geneva
Lake Museum’s new exhibit Mapping
the Past. The exhibit features about 30 maps of Lake Geneva
and the surrounding area, including the original map showing Lake
Geneva’s layout just after pioneers incorporated the new
municipality in 1836. The majority of the maps in the exhibit have
been donated by Edward Weed of the town of Linn.
Indefinite – La Rochelle, France
The Musée
du Nouveau Monde [Museum of the New World], 10 Rue Fleuriau, is
housed in an eighteenth century mansion, the hotel Fleuriau, named
after the family who lived there from 1772 to 1974. The Museum
features numerous old maps of the Americas as well as sculptures,
paintings, drawings, furniture and decorative objects. These objects
are evidence of the triangular trade and slavery with the Americas,
through which the city of La Rochelle, like others, amassed
considerable wealth. Part of the museum is devoted to the French
conquest of the New World, especially in Canada, while evoking the
Old West and Native Americans.
Indefinite – Mexico City
Museo
Nacional de la Cartografia, at Avenida Observatorio No. 94,
corner of Periférico Tacubaya, D.F., C.P. 11870, Delegación
Miguel Hidalgo, features exhibits about the general history of
mapping of Mexico. Codices, atlases, navigational charts, topographic
plans, and instruments used to make geodesic and topographical
measurements are on display.
Indefinite - Mussoorie, India
The
newly inaugurated George Everest Cartography Museum, located in the
George
Everest House which was owned by Everest from 1832 to 1843, is a
one-of-a-kind institution dedicated to preserving the rich history of
cartography, surveying, and mountaineering. The museum boasts an
impressive collection of exhibits showcasing the Great Trigonometric
Arc Survey initiated by Everest himself. Visitors can also explore
the extensive survey records of various Himalayan peaks undertaken by
Indian mountaineers. The museum is not only a treasure trove of
historical documents but also an educational resource. Information
about the diverse instruments used in these groundbreaking surveys is
thoughtfully presented, allowing visitors to delve into the methods
employed by these pioneers.
Indefinite - Palma, Majorca
Bartolomé March
Servera (1917-1998) became an important art collector and
bibliophile. The Fundación
Bartolomé March established a museum, where the family
residence in Palma was located for decades, to display his
collection. The Palau March, located at Carrer del Palau Reial, 18,
displays an outstanding collection of art and sculpture. Another of
the numerous collections that Bartolomé March brought together
was that of Majorcan Cartography. In Majorca, between the 14th
and 15th Century, an important set of navigation charts signed by
local artists was drawn up. The great majority of these charts left
the island and the most famous of them ended up in public libraries
or in private hands. Bringing together this collection, considered to
be one of the best in the world, was an arduous task. The exhibit
displayed here, with excellent documentation, brings together a very
interesting collection both for its technical perfection and its
exquisite ornamental effect. Included are Portolan charts by Jacobus
Russus (1535), Mateo Prunés (1561), Jaume Olives (1564 and
1571), Joan Oliva (1620), and Miquel Prunés (1640).
Indefinite - Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
The Mercator
Museum, Zamanstraat 49, has been closed since April 3, 2023 for
renovation. The Museum plans to welcome you again in the summer of
2025 in a larger and up-to-date new Museum. The Museum will display a
chronological story of cartography, from ancient times to today. In
this story, the figure and work of Gerard De Cremer (Rupelmonde 1512
- 1594 Duisburg) - aka Gerard Mercator - is placed in the spotlight.
His rare earth globe (1541) and celestial globe (1551), recently
included in the Flemish masterpieces list, remain the highlights of
the museum. The rich collection of atlases, including his first
Ptolemy edition 1584, shines in the showcases. The story is
complemented by a carefully chosen selection of maps and atlases from
the 17th to the early 20th century.
Indefinite –
Sydney
Visitors to the State
Library of New South Wales can explore five centuries of
cartography from around the world in one place in the Map
Rooms. Across two beautiful rooms visitors will find some of the
most important maps, globes and navigation instruments from the
Library's maps collection - arguably the most significant in
Australia. One of the major highlights is a chart of the
Indian Ocean and Asia — one of only four copies in the world —
printed on vellum by Jacob Colom in 1633. Other highlights
include: an extremely rare 1515 map by Albrecht Dürer and
Johannes Stabius depicting the world as a sphere; a beautiful
hand-coloured copy of the iconic nineteen counties (the legal
boundaries of the colony up to that date) map produced by Sir Thomas
Mitchell in 1834; the 1940 Tindale map showing the distribution
of Aboriginal nations in NSW; and a selection of
rare early maps showing the gradual colonisation and expansion of
Sydney from a penal settlement to a bustling metropolis. The Map
Rooms are located on the first floor of the Mitchell Building, 1
Shakespeare Place, open every day.
Indefinite - Tampa, Florida
The
Touchton
Map Library and Florida Center for Cartographic Education, at The
Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Old Water Street, is home to more
than 8,000 maps, charts and other documents dating back from the
early European exploration of North America more than 500 years ago
up through the early 21st century. A rotating exhibition of selected
maps from the collection can be viewed in the Saunders Foundation
Gallery.
Indefinite - Vienna
The Globe
Museum of the Austrian National Library, Palais Mollard,
Herrengasse 9, is the world's only institution devoted to the study
of globes and related instruments like armillary spheres and
planetariums. On display in eight rooms are many of the more than 460
globes owned by the Museum. Additionally there is a bilingual (German
and English) multimedia presentation about globe history, globe
making, and the use of globes. Additional information from
globen(at)onb.ac.at or Tel.: (+43 1) 534 10-710 or Fax: (+43 1) 534
10-319.
Indefinite – Washington
In 2011, Albert H. Small
donated to George Washington
University Museum, 701 21st Street NW, his unrivaled collection
of 1,000 maps and prints, rare letters, photographs, and drawings
that document the history of Washington, DC. A
Collector’s Vision: Creating the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana
Collection presents highlights of the Albert H. Small
Washingtoniana Collection, including Mr. Small's first acquisition
and other items that explore what motivates individuals to collect.
Indefinite –
Williamsburg
The first large-scale expansion and upgrade to
the building that houses the Art
Museums of Colonial Williamsburg since they were first joined
under one roof in 2007 is complete. Guests at the DeWitt Wallace
Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art
Museum are now able to enjoy an enhanced visitor experience through a
new wing that adds 65,000 square feet to the building, numerous
improved amenities as well as several new exhibitions. A new
exhibition Promoting
America: Maps of the Colonies and the New Republic, explores
how America’s indigenous peoples, flora, fauna and landscapes
influenced iconography on maps of the continent and how those symbols
changed, evolved or stayed the same over the course of two centuries.
Featured in the exhibition are maps that date from 1590, which
depicts the “New World” as a literal Garden of Eden and
will be on view for the first time, to an 1822 map celebrating the
relatively newly established United States as well as recent
acquisitions and other maps never before exhibited at the Art
Museums.
September 4, 2021 –
Indefinite - Eastsound, Washington
How do you get to Orcas
Island? How did the early explorers find their way before they even
knew what was there to be found? The Orcas
Island Historical Society’s new exhibition Mapping
Orcas: The Way Home features an extraordinary collection of
maps, most of which were assembled, restored, and reproduced by
photographer Peter C. Fisher of Orcas Island. Also featured in the
museum are exquisite, hand-drawn, original maps by the late Jean
Putnam. Maps include the township section map (1888-1895) by
J.J.Gilbert, a variety of geological and navigational charts, and a
number of maps specially created for the “edification” of
tourists and amusement of locals. Also exhibited is a reproduction of
a really old map, edited by three explorers in the 18th century, that
certainly verifies Juan de Fuca’s 16th-century description of
the islands he saw on his voyage to the Northwestern part of the
largely unknown continent. Two mid-nineteenth-century maps by John
Wilkes and his expedition show great leaps in the inaccuracy of
surveying and navigational methods. The Museum is open Tuesday thru
Saturday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. It’s that cluster of log
cabins on North Beach Road, right beside the Village Green. Admission
is by donation.
July 23, 2023 – February
28, 2024 and June 2024 – December 2024 – Udaipur,
India
The City
Palace Museum, Udaipur is holding an exhibition on rare painted
and printed maps of Udaipur in association with The
Getty Foundation of the USA. The exhibition Picturing
Place: Painted and Printed Maps at the Udaipur Court
brings together rare printed maps,
painted maps and cartographic documents from the Mewar Royal
collection in the Mardana Mahal. The exhibition gives visitors
fascinating insights into how places, landscapes, and the topography
of the State of Mewar were produced on maps, paintings, and other
related documents.
July 27, 2023 – September
2024 - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
As a member of the first
expedition to Virginia in 1585, the artist and explorer John White
created a detailed rendering of the east coast of North America from
Virginia to Florida. White’s work is considered the first map
of the region drawn from direct observation. But it is also noted for
its dramatic pictorial record of the voyage, with depictions of
ships, flying fish, and formidable sea monsters. This exhibition,
Compasses,
Cartouches, and Creatures: Exploring the Art of North Carolina Maps,
explores a selection of historical North Carolina maps and the ways
that mapmakers used artistic embellishments to educate, entertain,
and entice. Exhibition is in Wilson
Library, 208 Raleigh Street; open 9:00-5:00, Monday-Friday,
except holidays.
January 2024 - December 2024 –
Albuquerque
What choices do mapmakers face when representing
land and geographic space? What can maps reveal about the political,
commercial or even personal dynamics at play during their creation?
The exhibit, Borders:
Created, Contested & Imagined, on display in Zimmerman
Library, University of New Mexico, through 2024, invites
students, faculty, and the community to embark on a thought-provoking
exploration of the dynamic interplay between maps and the societies
they represent. Borders: Created, Contested & Imagined,
focuses on the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico
curating maps found in the University Libraries Federal Repository,
the Center for Southwest Research Special Collections (CSWR) and the
Map & Geographic Information Center (MAGIC).
March 9, 2024 - January 25, 2026
– Edinburgh
Between 1939 and 1945, more than 36 million
photographs and 342 million maps were produced by the British Armed
Forces. These precious tools were vital in directing and devising
escape plans for troops during the Second World War, but over the
years their purpose has changed, and now they are military mementos
and memories. To treasure the personal stories behind these WW2 maps,
the National War Museum in
Edinburgh Castle is putting a selection of them on display. Maps:
Memories of the Second World War explores the purpose of a
map as much more than just a physical or a functional object and
reveals the stories of the people who kept these maps as a memory of
a personal journey.
March 16, 2024 – Indefinite
- Hagerstown, Maryland
For history buffs, this is an exciting
time to pay a visit to the Washington
County Free Public Library, 100 S Potomac St., and see a display
of Revolutionary War era maps. The exhibit also includes maps
donated by Ira Laurie, who started his own collection of historic
maps at his Georgetown home in the 1970’s. There are a total of
190 maps and atlases that make up the collection which are on display
at the library.
April 4, 2024 - February 9, 2025
- Zollikon, Switzerland
Can maps make both local history and
various perspectives on a place visible? The new exhibition, at
Ortsmuseum Zollikon,
Oberdorfstrasse 14, Zollikon
von oben. Einladung zum Perspektivenwechsel [Zollikon from above.
Invitation to a change of perspective] combines historical
and current maps and aerial photographs of Zollikon with mapping,
local projects and artistic-architectural perspectives.
June 14, 2024 - December 2025 –
Washington
The new
Library of Congress exhibition Collecting
Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress, which is
part of the David
M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery on the on the second-floor
mezzanine of the Thomas Jefferson Building, is open to the public.
Over 100 objects in many formats from divisions all over the Library
of Congress are integrated and featured in this exhibition. Some fine
cartographic treasures are displayed as mementos of how different
cultures saw the world at different points in time.
June 29, 2024 - June 26, 2026 -
Cambridge Massachusetts
The idea of sea monsters has
captivated us for centuries. Could there really be something scary
lurking in the dark depths? Folklore and popular culture say yes, yet
science urges us to dive a little deeper. Sea
Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination is a new
exhibition at the Harvard
Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street. The exhibition
features historical illustrations of these fabled monsters and
detailed ancient mariners’ maps. Ancient maps held important
cultural knowledge, often revealed through depictions of mythological
creatures that served as warnings of dangerous and uncharted waters.
July 16, 2024 - January 18, 2025
– Portland, Maine
The Osher
Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education announces
our new gallery exhibit New to Us: Recent Acquisitions, 2019-2024.
We have some spectacular new acquisitions to show you.
September 5, 2024 - March 2, 2025
- Taipei City, Taiwan
Old maps with drawings of travel routes
primarily focus on travel routes and sometimes include roads and
travel route distance-related information. Distance-related
information can be found not only in maps but also in book
illustrations. Accordingly, this exhibition exhibits all artifacts
containing the related information of travel route. Connected
in All Directions / Exhibition of Old Maps and Books with Drawings of
Travel Routes introduces the National
Palace Museum’s collection of twenty sets of old maps and
books with drawings of travel routes in the 14th to the early 20th
century. Exhibition can be seen in Northern
Branch Exhibition Area 104, No.221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin
District and exhibition is closed December 2-6.
September 13, 2024 – March
2025 – Boston
In the long history of mapmaking,
computers are a relatively new development. In some ways, computers
have fundamentally changed how cartographers create, interpret, and
share spatial data; in others, they simply mark a new chapter in how
people have always processed the world. Processing
Place: How Computers and Cartographers Redrew our World features
objects from the Leventhal Map Center’s unique collections in
the history of digital mapping to explore how computers and
cartographers changed one another, particularly since the 1960s.
Exhibition can be seen in Leventhal
Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, 700
Boylston Street.
September 16, 2024 –
October 31, 2024 – Stanford
Branner
Earth Sciences Library & Map Collection, 397 Panama Mall,
presents Naturally Hazardous. From the cosmically unavoidable
to the anthropogenically-induced, Earth can be naturally hazardous to
humans. In the 2024-25 academic year, Branner Library’s exhibit
series will feature the science and impact of volcanoes, wildfires,
drought, and more. Books and a selection of maps are displayed on the
library's main floor. Additional maps are displayed on the library
mezzanine exhibit wall (access from within the library).
October 9, 2024 - February 28, 2025 - Stanford Epicenters: Navigating Recovery and Renewal from Disasters can be seen at David Rumsey Map Center, 557 Escondido Mall. The exhibition was curated by Stanford student Muhammad Dhafer, winner of the 2024 California Map Society student exhibition competition.
October 21, 2024 - June 7, 2025 –
Richmond
A new exhibition at the Library
of Virginia, 800 East Broad Street, will tell the story of 10
years, five governors, two principal surveyors and one lead engraver
— the time frame and team needed to create one of the first
official state maps in the nation in the early 1800s. The exhibition
Mapping
the Commonwealth, 1816–1826 will present examples from
40 manuscript maps that highlight the painstaking task of creating
Virginia’s first official state map. Correspondence and other
documents related to the publication of the map, as well as
copperplates — printing plates used for engraving — will
also be displayed in the exhibition.
March 2025 – January 2026 –
Boston
In 1775, a collision of word-historical forces, driven
by ocean-spanning empires, conflicts over trade and settlement, and
new ideas about society and government, came together in the spark of
the American Revolution. In the Leventhal
Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston
Street, the exhibition Terrains
of Independence will offer the entrypoint to a
reconsideration of the Revolutionary War through the lens of locality
and place as shown in maps.