Cartography - Calendar of Exhibitions


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.




Last Updated on October 8, 2024 by John W. Docktor <phillymaps(at)gmail(dot)com>